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White Walls & Shooting Gallery
March 15 - April 5, 2014Info
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http://www.whitewallssf.com/
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(415) 931-1500
Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Chad Hasegawa is well known for, perhaps surprisingly, taking California’s state animal, the grizzly bear, as his primary subject. These powerful animals were known for their fearlessness; early pioneers told tales of the grizzlies’ prowess in battles with charging longhorn bulls and of their refusal to retreat from the onslaught of new settlers that characterized the 1800s. Less than 75 years after the gold rush of 1849, the brave and wild bears which had roamed the state for 300 years were extinct.
In Elite Rebels, Hasegawa depicts his trademark grizzlies with repeating blocks of black, building their shapes as if mimicking a haphazardly-balanced pile of bricks. The forms appear (with eyes, nose and mouth painted in realistic detail) atop empty spaces of stark white set apart from backgrounds of flat color, some of which are stamped with the same rectangles used to make the bear’s bodies. Each bear was painted as a portrait of sorts, with most titled after the names of personal friends that, like Hasegawa, moved from Hawaii to San Francisco. The exception is the 8 x 8 foot showpiece, created in tribute to the artist’s father, who is a continuous source of inspiration to the artist.