Thad Higa

"[...] everything is based on connections and nothing else."
–Eduardo Calderon, from "Reading the Mesa"

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Thad Higa is a Korean-Okinawan American cultural worker, born 1989 on Ohlone Land, San Jose, California, and raised in Hawaiʻi. He's a book artist, concrete poet, writer and graphic designer. His work investigates the intersections of language, technology, capitalism and eurocentrism, and their roles in controlling perceptions of reality and legibility.

This reassessing of knowledge is a practice of using questions as processing tools and as end products, understanding that to our relationship to social bodies and to each individual is a relationship of change and unknowing.

educationing
2011 graduate from Seattle University
with a BA in Creative Writing

writing
Thad Higa, “Addressing the Creative Netizen,” Digital Culturist, Issue 5, March 5, 2017.
Thad Higa, “Artist Interviews Himself,” The Box Jelly, July 12, 2019.

Sophia Ma, " (R)education: Exhibiting the Asian American Experience," Art Papers, c. 2021.

Levi Sherman, "This Land Is My Land," Artists' Book Reviews, June 8, 2021.

Megan N. Liberty, "Artists Thad Higa and Tammy Nguyen Explore the ‘Collective Archive’" July 29, 2021.

Noe Tanigawa, “Eye-catching publication ignites discussion about racism, diversity and inclusivity at UH Mānoa,” October 28, 2021.

Thad Higa, “From the Mountain,” Lantern Review, August 11, 2021

curating
2019 Regenerate! Book Arts in Hawaiʻi co-curated with Minny Lee at Donkey Mill Art Center, Kona

book designing
2019 It Billows Up artist book designed for the Sontag Shogun, at Printed Matter, NYC

202(?) Artist book and magazine designer for The Box Jelly

2021 Decolonize University of Hawaiʻi Department of Art and Art History broadsheet collaboration with Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt

residencing
2019 Spring AIR at The Box Jelly

workshopping
2018 Monthly tiny zine- and book-making workshops at Mori, Art & Flea
2019 Identity and zine workshops at Donkey Mill Art Center, Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, and Mark’s Garage
2019 Walkabout, a psychogeographic walking tour and map-making exercise at da Shop Books in Kaimuki, Art World Escape, and Contact: Acts of Faith (collaboration with 88 Block Walks)

2022 AAPI Zine workshop at East Side Cultural Alliance

upcoming, ongoing

2022 Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhbition at SOMArts Cultural Center

2022 Sounds About Riso at UsagiNY Gallery

exhibiting
2018 ArtInTime group exhibit at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum
2019 TRANSCENDIENTS: Immigrant Stories of Place, group exhibit in Thomas Square Park, Honolulu
2019 Contact: Acts of Faith, group exhibit at Mission Houses, Honolulu
2019 Millenary Bodies: the Exhibition solo exhibit at The Box Jelly, Honolulu
2019 Regenerate! Book Arts in Hawaiʻi group exhibit at Donkey Mill Art Center, Kona

2021 O, with artist Tammy Nguyen at Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn

2021 Meed 4: The Power of Identity finalist in group exhibit, at Gallery 19 Chicago

2022 Hawaiʻi Triennial at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum

2022 Bound: The Art of the Book at ACCI Gallery

2022 Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhbition at SOMArts Cultural Center

2022 Sounds About Riso at UsagiNY Gallery

fairing
2017 Honolulu Print and Book Fair
2018 Hawaiʻi Zine Fest, Honolulu
2018 Honolulu Print and Book Fair
2019 Hawaiʻi Zine Fest, Honolulu
2019 Honolulu Print and Book Fair (tabler & events coordinator)

2022 Codex Book Fair

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blabbering

2019 Live interview and reading with It's Lit

2021 John Yau moderated artist talk with Tammy Nguyen

2021 Art World Escape talk with curator Marine Cornuet

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