Artwork

Yamagata Hiro

Lively Paris street.

HIRO YAMAGATA (1948)

Hiro Yamagata was born near Kyoto, Japan, went to Paris to study art, and considers himself an American artist. In his Los Angeles studio, Yamagata paints minutely detailed scenes of Paris streets, cafes and parks. He captures the essence of the naif style by presenting life in simple terms, and the world in the happiest light. His creative synthesis of photorealist and neo-primitive techniques has won countless admirers and collectors.

In 2000, Yamagata participated in a laser installation group exhibition, "An Active Life," at Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. In this year, he held "the Solar System Installations, Project 1" at Yamagata Studio in Malibu. He was designated as an official artist of Grammy Awards in 2000 by the Grammy foundation.

In 2001, Yamagata held a laser installation, "NGC6093" at Ace Gallery in New York. He held a laser installation, "Photon 999," at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.

In 2002, Yamagata held an exhibition of laser installation, "Quantum Induction" at Pepperdine University. His exhibition at Ace, New York in 2002 was described as "stunning" by Art in America.^[2]

In 2003, Yamagata held an exhibition which was collaborated with NASA, "Art&SPACE exhibition-Hiro Yamagata and the world of NASA," at Yokohama Seaport. His piece in this exhibition was held indoors and made by laser reflection of innumerable cubes hanging from the ceiling of two huge cubic structures which was surrounded by holograms. Visitors at this exhibition put polarizing lenses on to see the piece. However, the exhibition was ended sooner that it should have been because of the number of visitors did not increase as much as expected. It was to say that people thought they would see Hiro Yamagata's print works in the exhibition; the description of this exhibition was not appropriate so that they were disappointed. Later on, Yamagata held a laser installation exhibition, "Super Nova 3" at COSI Columbus Science Museum in Ohio. Also, he participated in an event, the "300th anniversary of Sankt-Peterburg municipal government, a Night of Sound and light," to show his laser installation. In this year, he also held an exhibition, "Hiro Yamagata Original Pictures" in Okinawa.

In 2004, Yamagata held a laser installation, "Quantum Field X3" at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain. In this exhibition, the laser which was coming from a disk shaped object set upon a hill aside the museum reflected and lightened up two cubic buildings' walls surrounded by holograms which were set outside of the museum. Starting from the exhibition in Yokohama, Yamagata's world of laser installation began to expand in scale.

In 2005, Yamagata proposed a large-scale holographic recreation of the destroyed statue of the Buddha at the Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan. The proposal included using solar energy saved during the day to power a laser installation after sunset, and was projected to cost $60,000,000. In this year, he showed his laser installation at a gala party which held at Geffen contemporary museum in L.A. Also, Yamagata participated in a collaboration event of laser installation and electrical music, "METTRIPPIN" and presented his work, "Theory Six." He also participated in the "Earth, Water, Fire and Air Festival" in the Castle in Cape Town, South Africa where he experimented in a pentagonal shaped castle, installed nearly 200 mirrors and reflected laser all around the building and the city. Also in 2005 he acted as executive producer for Sydney Pollack's documentary film Sketches of Frank Gehry, which was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

In 2006, Yamagata held an exhibition, "Air" at the Los Angeles Torrance Art Museum. Also, he held his installation, "Sculptor of Light," at Buschlen Mowatt Galleries in Palm Desert.

In 2007, Yamagata held an exhibition, "Transient" at Gehry Partners, in Los Angeles. The work consisted of India ink drawings on canvas.