| Solo Exhibitions |
2016
|
"Flame", Art Beatus Gallery, Hong Kong
|
2015
|
Art Land Gallery, Marugame, Kagawa, Japan
|
|
Gallery Natsuka, Ginza Tokyo, Japan |
2014
|
Art Land Gallery, Marugame, Kagawa, Japan |
2012
|
Art Land Gallery, Marugame, Kagawa, Japan |
2010
|
Gallery Natsuka, Ginza Tokyo, Japan |
| 2008 |
“Washi –
Ink Works of Hiroshi Hara”, Art Beatus (Vancouver)
Consultancy Ltd., Vancouver, Canada |
|
Gallery Natsuka, Ginza Tokyo, Japan |
2007
|
Gallery
Natsuka, Ginza Tokyo, Japan |
| 1990-93 |
Gallery Space Sakaide, Sakaide, Kagawa,
Japan |
| 1979-87 |
Gallery Tablesu 5, Sakaide, Kagawa, Japan |
| 1981-83 |
Kunugi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
| 1980 |
Osaka
Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan |
Group
Exhibitions |
2015
|
"Winter Group Exhibition", Art Beatus
(Vancouver) Consultancy Ltd., Vancouver, Canada
|
|
International Contemporary Art Exhibition
Art Islands, Tokyo, Oshima, Nishima, Japan |
2014
|
International Contemporary Art Exhibition
Art Islands, Tokyo, Oshima, Nishima, Japan
|
|
KOUBE Art MACHE, Koube, Hyougo, Japan
|
|
Art Nagoya 2014, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
|
2013
|
Kagawa + Yamanami Art Festival, Kagawa,
Japan
|
| 2012 |
Selected Artists Group Exhibition, Art
Beatus, Vancouver, Canada |
|
Unbound Perspectives Exhibition, New York,
USA
|
|
Art Taipei 2012, Taiwan
|
2011
|
Art HK, Hong Kong
|
| 2010 |
"Winter Showcase", Group Exhibition of
Gallery Artists, Art Beatus, Vancouver, Canada |
|
"The Fair Continues", Group Exhibition of
Gallery Artists, Art Beatus, Hong Kong |
|
"Art Fair Tokyo 2010", Tokyo, Japan |
|
The Beppu Asia Biennale of Contemporary Art
2010, Beppu Art Museum, Beppu, Oita, Japan
|
2009
|
Haruhi Art Triennial 2009, Haruhi Art
Museum, Kiyoshu, Aichi, Japan
|
|
The Grand Prix River Arts Exhibition 2009,
Kakogawa Cultural Centre, Kakogawa, Hyougo, Japan
|
|
Zikken Exhibition, Ibaragi Ceramic Art
Museum, Ibaragi, Kagawa, Japan
|
2008
|
Triennial Toyohashi, Toyohashi City Museum
Art and History, Toyohashi, Japan
|
2007
|
The Grand Prix River Arts Exhibition 2007,
Kakogawa Cultural Centre, Kakogawa, Hyougo, Japan |
| 2006 |
“The Grand Prix River Arts Exhibition 2006”,
Kakogawa Cultural Centre, Kakogawa Hyougo |
|
“ART NAW KANAGAWA”, 21st Century museum of
Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Kanazawa Ishikawa |
| 2005 |
“The 3rd Triennial Toyohashi”, Toyohashi
City Museum Art and History |
| 2003-06 |
“Zikken Exhibition” Ibaragi Ceramic Art
Museum, Ibaragi, Kagawa, Japan |
| 2002 |
"Art Comp Kagawa-Kagawa Art Festival" |
| 1998 |
INTRE-KONTART-GRAFIK' 98, Prague |
|
"Artists from
Japan", Gallery Sene Italy |
| 1988-96 |
"New Area", Tokushima Prefectural Museum of
Art and Ehime Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan |
| 1989 |
"Hamano and Ryu", Kunsthalle Nuremberg,
Germany |
| 1988 |
Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic
Art, Ljubljana, Solvenia |
Selected Award |
2009
|
Prize candidate, "Haruhi Art Triennial 2009"
|
2006
|
3rd Prize, “The Grand Prix River Arts
Exhibition 2006” |
|
Grand Prix Art, Comp Kagawa-Kagawa
Art Festival |
Artist 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 meditation 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 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.
Hiroshi Hara
For further
information, please contact:
Canada: tel: (1) 604.688.2633,
fax: (1) 604.688.2685
|
