barbara hashimoto | artist-in-resident

PRESS RELEASE | BauerLatoza Studio

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CHICAGO ARCHITECTURAL FIRM COMMISSIONS INTERNATIONAL FINE ARTIST

BauerLatoza Studio appoints Barbara Hashimoto as Artist-in-Residence

Chicago, Illinois – August 24, 2007 – BauerLatoza Studio is a woman-owned multi-disciplinary Architecture firm known for its work in Historic Preservation, Sustainable Design, Urban Design and Planning. Recent projects included The Chicago Cultural Center Green Roof design and the award-winning restoration of the Chicago Water Tower and Pumping Station. The firm is currently leading the façade restoration of the Federal Reserve Building in Chicago. BauerLatoza Studio was founded in 1990 and is located in the 100-year old Randolph Motor Car Building in Chicago’s Historic Motor Row District.

Barbara Hashimoto is a sculpture, installation and performance artist previously based in Tokyo and Los Angeles. Educated at Yale, Hashimoto’s work has been exhibited throughout Japan, the United States, and the Middle East and is in more than 250 public and private collections including The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American Art, The Museum of Arts and Design (New York), and The National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, D.C.).

As Artist-in-Residence at BauerLatoza Studio, Hashimoto divides her time between her private studio practice and explorations in the integration of Art + Architecture. She is developing the firm’s Public Art practice as well as projects in collaboration with the firm’s design professionals.

Her 2000-square foot studio located within the BauerLatoza Studio offices in the Randolph Motor Car Building will be open to the public for four days in October 2007 as part of Chicago Artists Month. Exhibitions, installations and performances will be presented on October 20 / 21 & October 27 / 28 (Saturdays / Sundays) 11 am – 6 pm. She will present the Chicago installment of Reverse Trash Streams: The Junk Mail Project.

Hashimoto lived in Japan for seven years, where she was apprentice to ceramic artist, Junko Yamada in Saitama, Artist-in-Resident under designated “Cultural Asset” Minoru Fijimori at the Japanese Hall of Papermaking on Shikohu Island, and studied Butoh dance with Iwani Masaki in Tokyo. She later established a studio in Tokyo and exhibited her work in museums and galleries throughout Japan.

She relocated to Los Angeles in 1996 where she was recognized for her multimedia installation/performances as well as her small-scale sculptural work. She is best known for her ceramic work in which she fires clay with books and reworks the resulting pieces with drawing, painting and collage. Her process alternatively destroys and enhances the original intention of the book and furthers the artist’s concerns with censorship, neo-narrative and the objectification of knowledge. Though the role of materiality is significant, Hashimoto’s work is researched-based and conceptually driven.