Honma Hideaki (born 1959), Current-2021, 2021, madake bamboo, menya, nemagari, rattan,
22.5 x 29.5 x 19.5 in.

Honma Hideaki, TAI Modern
July 29-August 27, 2022
Opening reception, July 29, 5-7pm
Virtual Artist's Talk, August 4, 6pm MDT/8pm EDT

This solo exhibition of works by Honma Hideaki, his generation's leading bamboo master, celebrates his 35th year working as an artist.

Honma Hideaki’s uncle, the pioneering bamboo artist Honma Kazuaki, had no children, so he adopted Hideaki (who loved to draw and work with his hands) as his son, student, and heir to the family’s bamboo business. The family business was booming at the time, so Honma did not go through a traditional apprenticeship but was immediately put to work harvesting bamboo and preparing material for older employees. Honma now considers himself fortunate not to have undergone formal training before he started creating works of his own because it freed him from the traditional thinking process around how bamboo art is “supposed” to be made.

Born in 1959 in Hatano-cho, Sado-gun, Niigata prefecture, Hideaki draws inspiration for his creations from nature on Sado Island, where he lives, and uses men’yadake, a local variety of bamboo that is soft and flexible. Honma’s process involves (1) sketching out ideas; (2) testing out his ideas using maquettes; (3) making an armature out of wood; (4) constructing the basic structure of the sculpture out of bent bamboo; and (5) filling in this frame with woven bamboo to complete the piece. This process may seem logical to the Western audience, but it is rather unique among bamboo artists in Japan.

Read more about the exhibition, click here.

To register for the artist’s talk on August 4th, click here.