ABOUT CHAD HASEGAWA
Chad Hasegawa is an American artist. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and enthralled with graffiti and the art of the Mission School, Chad moved to San Francisco in 2000. He received a BFA in advertising from the Academy of Art University and worked for top agencies, including Venables Bell & Partners and Goodby Silverstein & Partners. After leaving advertising, he concentrated on creating street murals and painting canvases for commercial and non-profit gallery exhibitions. He quickly gained recognition for his bold and colorful latex paintbrush strokes that pushed the boundaries of public art.
Over the past two decades Chad has partnered with various San Francisco art legacies such as The Luggage Store Gallery, Recology, 836m and the de Young Museum. He has been featured in articles for JUXTAPOZ, Creator's Project, KQED and Hi-Fructose.
“Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and enthralled with graffiti and the art of the Mission School, I moved to San Francisco in 2000. I received a BFA in advertising from the Academy of Art University and worked for top agencies, including Venables Bell & Partners and Goodby Silverstein & Partners. After leaving advertising, I concentrated on creating murals on the streets, and painting canvases for both commercial and non-profit gallery exhibitions. I quickly gained recognition for my bold and colorful latex paint brush strokes that pushed the boundaries of public art.
“Participating in and having been influenced by the graffiti community taught me to be resourceful with paint and supplies. My self-taught use of color aggressively shapes an object so that it is clearly visible when viewed from a far. Up close, the work can be viewed as an elaborate color design—an almost mosaic pointillism of brick-like shapes.
“I am strongly influenced by Vincent Van Gogh and Keith Haring, as well as Franz Kline and the New York School. These artists’ work helped me discover the subject matter that fits my unique style: the aggressively large, abstract body shape and beautifully brown colored bear. In addition to their reputation of being fiercely protective of their young, bears are highly respected in many cultures and are considered to be ancestral spirits. Each of my bear paintings is created with the intent of being a protector; personally for myself and for everyone that may come across my work.”
From the Archives
cOMING SOON:
Chad hasegawa- 2024 BEAR SKETCH
In conjunction with the opening of EAST, we are excited to offer a limited amount of Chad Hasegawa’s smaller bears on paper.
“Each one of these sketches are unique because I paint them one at a time. It’s my exercise for an understanding of how the body of the bear and the face of the bear works. This is how I find out what part of the bear is important visually and emotionally, how to transpire the vulnerability of the wild bear. After this, each paint stroke is then done with a sort of confidence, leaving room for play.”
Each piece will be 11”x14” hand painted on archival paper, signed and dated by the artist.
PAINTINGS
For a current list of available larger works, please reach out to the gallery below.