Naotaka Hiro

Kindly donated by the artist, Herald St, London; and Bortolami, New York

Naotaka Hiro (b. 1972, Osaka, Japan, lives and works in Los Angeles). 

Naotaka Hiro’s abstract work document performances made with his body: faint folds and holes on his pages demarcate the spaces where he inserts his body into the paper in the studio, mapping his movement in relation to the page and tracing his contorted frame in search of his own limitations. Using his body as a material, Hiro’s work references the early Japanese performance movement Gutai of the 1950s–1960s and Los Angeles conceptual art of the 1990s–2000s. Hiro also presents a selection of daily sketches that resemble a storyboard when seen together, using drawing as a daily act that alludes to the artist’s dual role as director and performer in his broader practice.

Naotaka Hiro was part of the recent exhibition ‘Shadow Tracers’ at the Aspen Art Museum in 2023. 

His work is in the collections of MoMA, New York; The Whitney Museum, New York; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; and many more.

Hiro’s work has also been exhibited at LAMoCA, Los Angeles; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; LAXART, Los Angeles; Centre d’Art Contemporain, La Ferme du Buisson, France, among others. Hiro has had solo exhibitions at Herald St, London; The Box, Los Angeles; Misako & Rosen, Tokyo; Brennan & Griffin, New York; and Shane Campbell, Chicago. He is the recipient of grants and awards from the Art Matters Foundation and the Asian and Pacific Islander Artist Presenting Initiative.

He received his B.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1997 and M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts in 2000. 

Solo exhibitions include Green Door at Herald St, London (2021); Armor at The Box, Los Angeles (2021); and In the Ravine at Misako & Rosen, Tokyo (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Sweet Home at Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York (2021); Spirits in the Material World at Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton (2021); Seven Stations: Selections from MOCA’s Collection at MOCA, Los Angeles (2020); In the Meanwhile... at Santa Barbara Museum of Art (2020); 50+50: A Creative Century from Chouinard to CalArts at REDCAT, Los Angeles (2020); Le Hanger at Maison de Rendez-Vous, Brussels (2020); and Made in L.A. 2018 at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018). His work can be found in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others.

Hiro is represented by Herald St, Bortolami, The Box and Misako and Rosen galleries. 

A review of his 2017 exhibition at The Box in LA offers insights into the artist’s diverse practice: 

The human cocoon: Naotaka Hiro's primal art, made from within - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)