Coleman Burke Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition of works by Hiroyuki Hamada.

The powerful elegant abstract forms of Hiroyuki Hamada’s sculptures invite us into a world of symphonic imagery and allow the mind to examine each piece as artifact from a distant past and a future not yet conceived. The sculptures speak for themselves using lines, marks and basic shapes as language while suggesting a natural indigenous feel amalgamated with synthetic structures.

Hamada works in a ritualistic and meticulous method of craftsmanship to create his timeless sculptures. Each piece begins as a drawing, finding form through foam and wood and a covering of burlap and plaster. Distinct variations on the surface result from painting and staining with enamel, wax, resin and tar, which he refines and finishes over several years. This technique gives a naturally eroded quality and impression. In certain onyx pieces, porous arrays or random hollows appear indistinguishably created by nature or machinery. The black matte adds a sublime texture to the domes, ovals, and disks, which empowers each structure with a striking fortitude, comparative to monuments that speak to a greater purpose.

Hamada’s work has alluring mystery standing within its own meditative universe. The shapes, color, and sequential numeric titling of the pieces leave questions and meaning open to interpretations within his exploration of forms and textures. Hamada states,” I enjoy people coming up with stories seeing my work. And I even wonder about literal meanings and background stories in them sometimes, but all these come after the work is finished.”

About the artist: Born in Japan in 1968 and moved to the United States at the age of eighteen, Hiroyuki Hamada started with 2 dimensional works on canvas and slowly emerged to 3 dimensional objects. As his exploration of applying paint grew, along with mixing tar and plaster with paint, he realized that what he was growing towards was more than just portraying the illusion of 3 dimensional spaces on 2 dimensional surfaces. Once plaster was introduced into his crafting, Hamada was allowed to actually carve into the surface, mold and create these obscure structures that contain more than fifteen years of work.

His work has been exhibited internationally at various venues including cutlog, Aureus Contemporary, Paris, France, art sites llc, Riverhead, NY, Scope Basel, Aureus Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland, Art Chicago, Aureus Contemporary, Chicago, IL, FAWC Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA, Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, Plane Space, New York, New York, OK Harris Works of Art, New York, New York, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Hamada has received grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. He was nominated for a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, has received residencies at Edward F. Albee Foundation/William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center, The MacDowell Colony (Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship), Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center (Alexander C. and Tillie S. Speyer Fellowship), and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and has attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Skowhegan Fellowship).