Hap Sakwa

Hap Sakwa (Born December 6, 1950) is an American sculptor and commercial photographer. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leader in the modern wood turning movement that revolutionized the craft, elevating it to an art form, creating narrative sculptural objects using polychromed wood and found objects. From 1988 until 1993 Sakwa turned another artistic corner producing a series of pop art mosaic assemblage, juxtaposing Americana imagery, word play and bright colorful patterns in ceramic tile. Beginning in 1994 he turned his attention to photography becoming one of the country's most distinguished jewelry photographers with images featured on the covers and in editorial compositions of leading books and periodicals regarding the art and craft of jewelry.

Life and Works

Hap Sakwa was born in Los Angeles, California. Following the death of his parents in 1954, he moved to Maryland with his two brothers. During the 1960’s he attended the Milton Hershey School, a boarding school for orphans in Pennsylvania and graduated in 1968. It was there he learned the value of self-motivation that would later be of enormous value as he pursued a life as a craft artist. Sakwa attended the University of Maryland drifting aimlessly in academia ne...

Public Collections

Museum of Modern Art - New York, New York

Museum of Art and Design - New York, New York

The De Young Museum of Art - San Francisco, California

The Oakland Museum of California - Oakland, California

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art - Los Angeles, California

Minneapolis Art Institute - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Yale University Art Gallery - New Haven, Connecticut

Carnegie Museum of Art - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art - Logan, Utah

Mint Museum - Charlotte, North Carolina

The Philadelphia Museum of Art - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Center for Art in Wood - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania