Jacob Hashimoto: Death by Water

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to announce Death by Water, an exhibition of new work by New York-based artist Jacob Hashimoto. The exhibition marks Jacob Hashimoto’s first with the gallery and will be on view from November 5, 2026, through January 7, 2027. The gallery will host an artist discussion moderated by Joseph Becker, Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, on November 5, 2026, at 4:30 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m.

Rooted in the language of landscape-based abstraction, Jacob Hashimoto's work oscillates between object and vastness. Repositioning the kite as a mark-making apparatus, Hashimoto combines painting and sculpture into meticulously crafted systems. Composed of countless bamboo and Washi paper kites, Hashimoto's work draws upon traditional Japanese handcraft techniques and three-dimensional modeling. In Hashimoto’s wall sculptures, fields of color, recurring patterns, modular compositions, and syncopating symbols reveal a multipart surface suspended between part and whole.

Fragmented records of experiences, Hashimoto's imagery ranges from virtual realms to cells, the cosmos, and natural elements. Exploring the mechanism by which meaning is constructed, Hashimoto's work builds narrative in an accretion of discrete and juxtaposed imagery. As such, the viewer's voyage through the work is critical to its meaning. The essential nature of Hashimoto's multiplicitous visual language invites the viewer to engage with the work at various points. One can approach Hashimoto's work for its physical presence; one can engage in its visual language; one can explore its meticulous process; one can ask what led us here and where are we going next?

Hashimoto’s work may be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY;  Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State; Capital One, McLean, VA;  Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France; Cornell Tech Art Collection, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; McDonald’s Corporation, Chicago, IL; Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA; Oak Park Public Library, Oak Park, IL; Saastamoinen Foundation, EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; The California Endowment, Los Angeles, CA; and the Tokiwabashi Tower Art Collection, Tokyo, Japan, and elsewhere.