Sugimoto Hiroshi
Sugimoto Hiroshi was one of the founding artists of Imadate Art Field in 1979. Sugimoto’s work won accolades from guest curator Lee Ufan throughout the 1980s and 90s iterations of the exhibition. His work has touched on a variety of concepts, but he is primarily interested in utilizing papermaking detritus, such as discarded fibers, cut edges, and other materials associated with his region’s papermaking industry. In the early 2000s, Sugimoto took a hiatus from his practice to work as a caretaker for people with disabilities. He re-emerged in 2020 and has been actively producing new artwork since. He held a solo exhibition of new work at the Udatsu Paper & Craft Museum in Japan in 2023. Sugimoto recently opened a new gallery space committed to handmade paper art.