Jacob Hashimoto’s pieces aren’t easily classified as either two- or three-dimensional. Instead, his mixed-media works play with the boundary between the two, merging traditional craft practices with painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation.
Hashimoto’s pieces range from multilayered wall works to large-scale, site-specific installations made with hundreds—sometimes thousands—of paper-and-bamboo discs inspired by kites. Screen-printed with acrylic, they’re coated in vibrant colors and patterns that almost vibrate when layered with lengths of string, pulled taut between a system of pegs or suspended from the ceiling.
The artist’s eponymous solo exhibition, opening this week at Miles McEnery Gallery, highlights his continued interest in “reframing the brushstroke as a modular unit,” says a statement. “Hashimoto splinters painting’s most fundamental conventions (stroke, mark, surface) into discrete, discernible
forms.”
Each translucent disc is meticulously arranged in a multifaceted composition in which various motifs billow, branch, and blend through several layers. Uniting the individual components into an overall structure, we get the sense that intuition guides the arrangement, yet set parameters—not unlike the edges of a canvas—ultimately determine the placement.
On the same token, the continuity and pixel-like quality of the discs suggest they are planned well in advance. Hashimoto often uses 3D computer modeling software to lay out the overall works, especially large-scale installations, to achieve a high level of precision.
The exhibition opens in New York City on October 30 and continues through December 20. Dive into the archive to read some of Hashimoto’s insights in his Colossal interview, and visit the artist’s website and Instagram for more work and updates.
