Jason Hirata: Carnegie Mellon University School of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Co-presented by Carnegie Museum of Art and the CMU School of Art

Join us for an evening with artist Jason Hirata as they share an in-depth look at their practice and the works featured in If the word we, 59th Carnegie International. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Register Now →

About the Artist

Jason Hirata (born 1986, Seattle, WA; lives in New Jersey) performs an artistic ambiguity that parallels his personal comfort with indirectness, abstraction, and indeterminacy. Artistically, this invites interpretation. Psychologically, it might function as defense, avoidance of emotional exposure, and dissociation. Intentional ambiguity can foster reflection and collective engagement, but overuse of vagueness may impair clarity in personal relationships and professional collaboration. Role fluidity enables experimentation and boundary navigation, but identity fusion may scuttle the definition of self and direct assertiveness. Hirata has shown at Ulrik, New York; Fanta-MLN, Milan; CCS Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York; Fluentum, Berlin; Simian, Copenhagen; Paid, Seattle; Theta, New York; The Wig, Berlin; B. Beamesderfer Gallery, Highland Park, New Jersey; Billytown, The Hague; Artists Space, New York; 80WSE, New York; Svetlana, New York; Veronica, Seattle, and elsewhere.

Finding Kresge Theatre

Kresge Theatre is located in the College of Fine Arts building on the south end of CMU’s campus (near the Hunt Library). To find the theatre, enter the College of Fine Arts building from the west (main) entrance closest to the College of Fine Arts Lawn. Street parking is available along Frew and Tech streets or in CMU’s East Campus Garage.

About If the word we, 59th Carnegie International

Organized every four years by Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie International is the longest-running exhibition of international art in North America. The 59th edition is the most collaborative and far-reaching to date — a clear expression of the museum’s founding commitment to the art and artists of our time, at once grounded in our locality and extending globally.

Titled If the word we, the 59th Carnegie International considers the first-person plural as an open and evolving proposition — one shaped by listening, translation, and transformation — bringing together artistic practices that engage shared experience, circulation, and worlds in transition. Drawing from a commissioned catalogue essay by writer Haytham el-Wardany, the exhibition approaches “we” not as a unified subject but as a complex and porous position, attentive to contradiction and change. Across a wide range of media, from painting, photography, and sculpture, to installation, video, performance, and theater, participating artists traverse cultural, political, intellectual, and spiritual geographies that extend beyond national boundaries. The projects emerge through everyday acts, materials, and environments, offering spatially expansive portraits of collective life in the present.

About the Visiting Artist Lecture Series

The Carnegie Mellon School of Art Lecture Series is made possible in part by Elizabeth (Thompson) and Thomas M. Cox (A’29) Distinguished Artists Funds, Robert L. Lepper Distinguished Lecture in Creative Inquiry, and Orville M. Winsand Lecture for Critical Studies.

Carnegie Mellon makes every effort to provide accessible facilities and programs for individuals with disabilities. This publication can be made available in an alternate format upon request. For accommodations, contact the School of Art at schoolofart@cmu.edu or 412.268.2409. Lecture and event details are subject to change or cancellation.