Artists Represented -- Hiroshi Hara

Biography:

1956	Born in Takamatsu Kagawa, Japan

Inventory Catalogue

Solo Exhibitions:
2008	“Washi – Ink Works of Hiroshi Hara”, Art Beatus (Vancouver) Ltd, Vancouver, Canada
2007	Gallery Natsuka, Ginza Tokyo, Japan
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2006	“The Grand Prix River Arts Exhibition 2006”, Kakogawa Cultural Centre, Kakogawa Hyougo
2006	“ART NAW KANAGAWA”, 21^st Century museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Kanazawa Ishikawa
2005	“The 3nd Triennial Toyohashi” , Toyohashi City Museum Art and History
2003 – 06	“Zikken Exhibition” Ibaragi Ceramic Art Museum, Ibaragi,　Kagawa, Japan
Selected Award:
	3^rd Prize, “The Grand Prix River Arts Exhibition 2006”
Artist's Statement Current Works of Hiroshi Hara I have been using Japanese ink on handmade Washi (Japanese paper) for my recent work. I always try to limit how much I do on the paper because I don’t want to take away from the beauty of the Washi itself. I draw various kinds of transparent brushstroke lines rhythmically, then apply delicate shading with Japanese ink on them so you can still see the brushstroke lines. I aim to express speculation and meditational feelings to inspire viewers through my work using the simplest technique and the least colour. Washi is mainly made of Kozo and Mitsumata which are Japanese plants. Sometimes hemp and bamboo are used to produce Washi as well. All of them are shrubs/low trees which can grow on any mountain in Japan; they can be artificially grown too. It is quite easy to use them to make pulp as well. The plants have great qualities as accessible natural materials. Washi has been nurtured in this long history. When I paint my work, I always remind myself not to forget to respect and have appreciation for Washi and for all the wonderful people in the past who contributed to creating Washi. Now I think my representation brings attention to the ecological lifestyle to come back and the importance of it to our contemporary society. Washi has its own beauty. Washi welcomes light and diffuses it, and produces a soft and comfortable atmosphere. Washi, itself is an artist and I, myself produce works from the result of the collaboration with Washi. With respect to my work titles, I tend to use words from natural phenomena. The phenomena which is created by Washi, Japanese ink and water is a very important element to my representation, so I study the phenomena very carefully. Background of Hiroshi Hara My father was a banker till he was 40 years old. Because of his job, my family moved a lot. When I was 4 or 5 years old, we lived in Iyo Mishima city (now Shikoku Chuo city). This town had plenty of water so paper manufacturing was very active. Even now there are lot of paper mills and you can smell the pulp in the town. The building next to where we lived was a workplace that made handmade Washi. There were still many handmade Washi companies around 45 years ago. Whenever my mother looked for me when I was a little, she always found me with a big smile on my face, watching how they produced handmade Washi at the workplace. Later, my father changed his job to work at a paper mill in Iyo Mishima city so my family came back to our hometown Kagawa prefecture. I still remember very clearly, my father putting in so much effort and using such a strict approach to produce the paper. I think this is where my feelings for the beauty, warmth, and respect towards the paper came from. I studied at public elementary and secondary school, then entered the University of Art to officially learn painting which I liked since I was a child. When I think back, my father who made paper with such sincerity affected my life in a large way. Early Works In my 20’s, I chose “daily stuff” to draw as much as possible. I made whole canvasses look like real wood boards or logs and created another work on canvas that looked like the empty inside skin of “bark”. The work called “A Board” is a whole canvas made to look like a real wood board; I tried to reproduce the real texture of wood using oil paint for both works. When I produced this series, my goal was not to show any of my personality in the works. I didn’t have any models of wood board nor bark. I drew them only with my imagination. The result was was more emotion in the works and they became stronger. The work, “A Board” shows a flat image while “Bark” creates perspective space. They are quite the dynamic pieces but something unexpected happened. Some were categorizing me as one of the super-realism artists who had a lot of attention in 80’s and they only valued my very detailed technique. This was not what I was looking for and I stopped using this method in my late 20’s. I then started to make “The Wall” series which dealt with flat images again. I made my own paint mixed with the powder of marble and a binding medium, painted it on a wood board dozens of times, polished and scraped it off, and continued to repeat the process. I used this technique to produce “The Wall” and “The Layer of the Memory” series with oil paint, monotype prints, and silk screen prints. I also made semi three-dimensional or relief works using melted glass plates. These works were produced in my trial and error period which continued into my early 40’s. Around this time, I started to make some works with Washi. When I was 45 years old, I started to make works with handmade Washi and I have since kept using them. ------ by Hiroshi Hara For further information, please contact: Canada: tel: (1) 604.688.2633, fax: (1) 604.688.2685