News

Article about my solo exhibition “Where Do Birds Go Off to Die” at Black Square Gallery on Miami New Times by Carlos Suarez De Jesus.

Kristin Farr and Emmanuel Hapsis from KQED visited my studio and interviewed me. We had a fun conversation.

>> go to the article

I picked them up on the street to work for me.

I am showing my new performance/video installation at ProArts located at Oakland Art Gallery. I titled this new work “Exinclusivity.” I hope you can come to see my new exploration. Through my previous sculptural installation practices, I had been thinking about how desire and power make us self-destructive often from the historical or political point of view. This time, I wanted to deal with the sa in a more direct way through exploitative labor conditions.

2 x 2 Solos: Taro Hattori

March 8 – April 8, 2011
Artists Reception: March 10, 6 – 8 PM

Pro Arts 150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612 (at Oakland Art Gallery) 510-763-4361
http://www.proartsgallery.org/

“Exinclusivity” at Pro Arts (Oakland Art Gallery) from Taro Hattori on Vimeo.

I specially thank to these great people and institutions:

Steve Blumenkrantz, Michael Damm, Jessica Diaz, Mariana Garibay, Ellen Lake, Thomas Lopes, Gary Nakamoto, California College of the Arts, Stanford University, National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Swarm Gallery (CA), Black Square Gallery (FL), Peter Miller Gallery (IL), many others who continue helping my practice.

West Collection selected me as one of 10 West Prize finalist and decided to acquire Obscenity -version 1 (picture below). It seems those 10 were selected among 2100 applicants! Wow. I am honored and also amazed by the number, considering their reviewing process. In May 2011, they will host an exhibition in Philadelphia and announce the final prize winner for $25,000. They will review our proposals for how to spend the prize.

It’s on Miami New Times by Carlos Suarez De Jesus

>> Read the Article

Vermont Studio Center gave me a fully funded fellowship for their residency program. It will be in July 2011.

http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org/october-1-award-winners-2/

http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org/

Black Square Gallery in Miami now represents my work in Florida. Some group Exhibitions and Solo exhibition (Feb 2011) are coming up. Stay tuned.
http://www.blacksquaregallery.com/

Matthew Post will curate my work for 2×2 Solos Exhibition at ProArts. It is a “two-solo” exhibition… It will be in March 2011.
http://www.proartsgallery.org

My work 1951 series is featured in Intersection: World Culture in the East Bay by East Bay Culture Corridor, a collaborative effort by the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville and Richmond.
http://www.510arts.com/intersection.php?artist_id=1249

I am showing a new installation Where Do Birds Go Off to Die at San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery for a group show Now and When. The reception is this Friday June 4th from 6 to 8 pm. My work in not in the main gallery but in the window installation space at 155 Grove Street around the corner from the gallery.

Now & When
Exhibition Dates: June 4 – September 4, 2010
Opening reception: Friday, June 4, 6 – 8 pm
Locations: Main Gallery and Grove Street

SFAC Gallery
401 Van Ness Ave (at McAllister)
San Francisco, CA 94102
p: 415.554.6080 | f: 415.554.6093

Window Installation
155 Grove Street

Where Do Birds Go Off to Die (2010)

The world began without man, and it will end without him.
-Claude Lévi-Strauss

Anyone whose goal is “something higher” must expect some day to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? … No, vertigo is something other than the fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.
-Milan Kundera

When we finally disappear, nature returns. Nature erases our footprints slowly but surely, and quietly but ruthlessly. Human civilization and history we nurture becomes a part of nature gradually, and this transitory moment vanishes into perpetuity. For som, death means the beginning of emptiness, but for nature, it means the end of alteration of specific matter and the beginning of another alteration of it. Our will for civilization is vertigo. Do pelicans, who fly along the seashore, feel vertigo?

Where Do Birds Go off to Die is supported by the Graue Family Foundation.

Special Thanks to:

Nate Ancheta
Dan Bacci
Mayumi Hamanaka
Gary Nakamoto
Tomo Saito
Bassem Yousri

On Artillery Magazine, my name was listed as one of “a few artists whose range of practices reflects the incredible talent and diversity of the San Francisco region.”

I finished installing my new work for NEXT 2010, Chicago. Swarm Gallery (Oakland) is presenting these new pieces along with Ethan Worden’s beautiful work which interestingly shares a lot with my work. The official opening is on April 30.

I am actually not sure if it has been printed on their April issue, but Art in America reviewed my solo exhibition “V”. The review was by Mark Van Proyen.

Wow. I was awarded a grant for purchasing equipment! It is Investing in Artists grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation. The amount is sufficient to buy the equipment and software programs in my mind. I really appreciate this decision at this particular time. I will try harder to make great artworks so that I don’t waste their appreciation of my work. Is this a joke on April Fool’s day?

I am now in Charlotte, NC, doing my residency at McColl Center for Visual Art. The center has been treating me nicely. The city and the area around are still unknown for me and I haven’t been able to find “my place” yet.

Anyway, an exhibition of all the artists in residence will start on January 29th. I am showing four pieces from “1951,” “Coconut Beaut Brute,” and “M16″ from “Packed” along with a video that explains the project.