Background and Work
Hiroko Takeda is a New York-based artist from Japan, where she trained in the tradition of the Mingei Undou (Japanese Arts and Crafts Movement) and began her practice in Kyoto and Tokyo. Takeda received an MA in Constructed Textiles from the Royal College of Art in London. She has exhibited in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Prior to opening her Brooklyn studio, Takeda was senior designer at the Jack Larsen Studio in New York.
She has been an artist-in-residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and has received the International Textile Award in Tokyo, the ICFF Editors Award, and the Jack Larsen Contemporary Textile Award. She has lectured on her art with Sheila Hicks in New York and is a guest lecturer at Tama Art University in Tokyo.
Exhibitions and Publications
Takeda has exhibited at Hunter Dunbar Projects, Dobrinka Salzman Gallery, Cavin-Morris Gallery, Colony, Egg Collective, Flux Factory, and Ise Foundation (NYC); Centre de design de l'UQAM (Canada); Oriel Myrddin Gallery and Smiths Row (UK); Micheko Galerie (Munich); Nishi Galllery (Melbourne); Arteque and Ozone Design Center (Tokyo); and elsewhere. Her work has appeared in Confluences in Art: from the Old and New Worlds; Weaving – Contemporary Makers on the Loom; The Perfect Imperfect; Warp and Weft: Woven Textiles in Fashion, Art and Design; Whitewall, Cultured, Architectural Digest, Surface, Metropolis, The New York Times, Dwell, Wallpaper, Curbed, Souen, Interior Design, Kinfolk, Cool Hunting, OEN, Casa Vogue, Elle Décor, Bare Journal, Interni, among other book, journal and web publications.
Press Release – “The Ten Thousand Threads,” Hunter Dunbar Projects, March 6 – April 19, 2025
The Ten Thousand Threads takes its title from the Taoist concept of "the ten thousand things." Often attributed to the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, it refers to the notion that in spite of the variety visible in the world, all things are fundamentally one. Applying this to Takeda’s practice, the multitudinous variations in weft and weave, color, pattern, and structure in her work can be seen as having an underlying connection; the works reside within the “the rule-bound world of weaving” and simultaneously emphasize an “invitation to the accidental, disorderly, or unexpected.” Takeda’s works in The Ten Thousand Threads strive to transcend boundaries between light and dark, raw and refined, geometry and fluidity, painting and sculpture.
As Takeda says, “The world I see, like the world warp and weft, has rules and constraints that are supposed to be good for us, but disorder happens naturally, and the other side of tension is fluidity. I manipulate and orchestrate the elements and welcome accidental moments of material behavior.” Whether underscoring geometric form or expressive vistas, Takeda’s work illuminates the fundamental tensions between tradition and innovation as well as complexity and reductionism.
For further information, please contact info@hirokotakeda.com.