Takuji Hamanaka
Takuji Hamanaka is an artist and printmaker living in Brooklyn, New York. He was apprentice in traditional woodcut printmaking in Tokyo, Japan. In recent works he combines printmaking with collage, using extremely thin Japanese paper called “Gampi.” Hamanaka says of his practice, “I have been working with biomorphic images in both painting and print over the course of the last several years. To me biomorphic images seem to manifest the fundamental essence of living things, evoking the constant movement of organisms within themselves. My paintings create complex, intertwining networks that sometimes look partly human, partly vegetable. I hope I have succeeded in shaping some kind of crossbreed of the two. There is also an ambiguity to the images that hopefully allows for broader interpretation.”
His work has been exhibited at the International Print Center, New York, Whitman College, Washington, National Academy of Fine Arts, India, and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, among others. Hamanaka received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, NY, KALA Art Institute Fellowship, CA and has been a resident at the MacDowell Colony, NH, Open Studio Residency, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, ME and Open studios, Museum of Arts and Design, NY.
NYFA …
Takuji Hamanaka is an artist and printmaker living in Brooklyn, New York. He was apprentice in traditional woodcut printmaking in Tokyo, Japan. In recent works he combines printmaking with collage, using extremely thin Japanese paper called “Gampi.” Hamanaka says of his practice, “I have been working with biomorphic images in both painting and print over the course of the last several years. To me biomorphic images seem to manifest the fundamental essence of living things, evoking the constant movement of organisms within themselves. My paintings create complex, intertwining networks that sometimes look partly human, partly vegetable. I hope I have succeeded in shaping some kind of crossbreed of the two. There is also an ambiguity to the images that hopefully allows for broader interpretation.”
His work has been exhibited at the International Print Center, New York, Whitman College, Washington, National Academy of Fine Arts, India, and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, among others. Hamanaka received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, NY, KALA Art Institute Fellowship, CA and has been a resident at the MacDowell Colony, NH, Open Studio Residency, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, ME and Open studios, Museum of Arts and Design, NY.
NYFA Fellow in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts '11
Courtesy of NYFA and the Artist
