八木秀人は1975年3月16日生まれ。埼玉県狭山市で生まれ、所沢市上安松で幼少期を過ごした。アートディレクターとして株式会社電通で活躍していた父・正仁と、絵本作家を目指していた母・紀子のもとに三男として生まれた。幼少期から父に水彩画を教わり、毎年家族でスケッチ旅行に出かけ、船や自然の風景、静物、家などを描いた。

本格的に美術の道に進む決心をしたのは、高校受験で目標としていた学校にすべて落ちてしまったときだった。これからは美術の道に進むことで自分の才能を開花させたいと思った。美術大学を卒業していた父や、同じく美術大学を目指す長男・克人の影響も大きかった。

高校1年生から本格的に美術の勉強を始めた。地元の漬物屋の工場で初めて稼いだアルバイト代で聖ジョルジョの胸像を購入し、石膏デッサンを描き始めた。実家にある様々な写真集を模写し、長男が描いた静物デッサンを模写したり、自分の好きなミュージシャンのカセットテープをデザインしたりした。週末は定期的に美術館へ足を運んだ。高校1年生の春休みから代々木ゼミナール造形学校に通い始め、初めて木炭デッサンを学んだが、なかなか上達せず、立体の構造を理解するために夏期講習から彫刻科に編入した。

彫刻科では裸婦像のデッサンや動物の模刻などを中心に学び、この頃から立体に対する興味が芽生えた。彫刻の道に進みたいと思ったが、広告の仕事を専門にしていた父の助言により、高校2年生からすいど〜ばた美術学院のデザイン科に編入した。学校を早退して毎日美術予備校に通い、そこでさらにデッサンと色彩構成を学び始めた。高校3年生からは父や長男が通っていた東京芸術大学を本気で目指したが合格できず、予備校で浪人生活を始めた。父や兄が専攻していた工芸科に進路を変更し、浪人時代に工芸科で美術を学んだ。そこから3年間東京芸術大学を目指すも合格できず、悩んだ末に4浪目で本来進もうとしていたデザイン科に進路を戻し、多摩美術大学グラフィックデザイン学科に入学した。

大学時代から積極的にコンピューターグラフィックスや映像を学び、デジタル表現にのめり込んでいった。大学3年生からは広告を専攻し、父が働いていた広告代理店への道を真剣に考えるようになる。最終的には外資系のマッキャンエリクソンにアートディレクターとして入社し、マイクロソフトやジョンソン・エンド・ジョンソンなどの外資系クライアントの仕事に携わった。入社3年目に友人のイベントで妻・真紀子に出会い結婚。結婚式では愛情表現として鉛筆で彼女の肖像画を描いた。幸せな新婚生活だったが、どこかで父親が働いていた電通に強く惹かれ続け、入社5年目に中途採用試験を経て電通に入社。日本企業のクライアントを中心にアートディレクターとして働き始めた。

電通での仕事は急増し、抱えきれないほどの量をこなす日々が続いた。仕事に振り回され将来を見失いかけながらも、何か自分の強みを作りたいと思い、友人の笠原健太朗氏と彼の会社のガレージでオルファカッターを使った紙の立体シリーズを制作し始めた。このシリーズは国内外で多くの賞を受賞した。その後、友人の軍司匡寛氏とのグループ展「PAPER TYPOGRAPHY」などで紙立体作品に没頭し、平面と立体の中間にあたるレリーフ表現への興味を深めていった。この時期から父のアルツハイマー病が進行し始め、表情が失われていった。その頃に制作したステッドラー鉛筆のブランド広告では、多摩美術大学の教授でありステッドラーの演出家でもあった中島信也氏の強い勧めもあり、父の肖像画と花束を鉛筆で描き、ブランド広告として制作した。秀人にとって人生で最も密度の濃い鉛筆デッサンであった。父はその2年後に他界した。

2017年、表参道のスパイラルギャラリーにて3社合同アート展「ART BY THE HAND」を開催。その展示期間中に予備校時代に師事した作家・尾崎悟氏に再会し、尾崎氏に誘われてニューヨークのARMORY SHOWを二人で訪れた。会場で尾崎氏の作品が販売される瞬間を目の当たりにし、アーティストとしての道に強く憧れるようになる。その旅で、当時トライベッカにあったhpgrpギャラリーのキュレーター、戸塚健太郎氏と出会った。帰国後、戸塚氏にこれまでの作品や今後作りたい作品をまとめたファイルをプレゼンテーションし、ニューヨークでの展示機会を得た。この頃から自分独自の作品制作や仕事に専念したいという想いが強まり、電通を退社し、クリエイティブ会社Hand Inc.を設立。以降4年間、戸塚氏のサポートを受け毎年ニューヨークのart on paper展に参加した。作品が定期的に売れるようになり、2022年にブルックリンのBogartスタジオに拠点を拡大。地元でのオープンスタジオを複数回開催し、現地アーティストたちと交流を深めた。ニューヨークで出会ったギャラリストの紹介で4 Flavor Galleryにて個展を開催し、多くの作品を販売したが、その後コロナの影響で一旦海外での活動を断念し、東京での活動に専念している。

2024年、尾崎悟氏の推薦で千葉県牛久市主催のアートプロジェクトに参加し、メッセージを立体化した巨大な壁画作品を制作。その後、友人で作家の馬場敬一氏のYUGEN GALLERYの展覧会でギャラリーを紹介され、同ギャラリーでの個展開催の機会を得た。

八木秀人は「人生はすべて積み重ねの連続である」と語り、それを作品表現にも取り入れている。昔から親しんできた紙やスチレンボードを用い、工芸や彫刻で培った立体表現を活かし、広告業界で磨いたコピーライティングの技術を独自のメッセージとして立体化していく。時に鉛筆デッサンを融合し、時に平面構成で使ったアクリルガッシュを用いて色彩を織り交ぜる。そして立体作品を完成させる。基盤はAdobe Illustratorによるデザインであり、何度も描き重ねることで八木秀人独特のオーラを纏う。今後も変化を続けながら作品制作を続けていくだろう。

Hideto Yagi was born on March 16, 1975, in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture, and spent his early childhood in Kami-Yasumatsu, Tokorozawa City. He is the third son of Masahito Yagi, an art director at Dentsu Inc., and Noriko, who aspired to be a picture book author. From a young age, he was taught watercolor painting by his father, and every year the family went on sketching trips where he painted boats, natural landscapes, still lifes, and houses.

He made the serious decision to pursue art after failing to get into all the high schools he had aimed for in his entrance exams. He wanted to develop his talents through art. His father, who graduated from an art university, and his eldest brother Katsuhito, who also aimed to enter an art university, had a great influence on him.

Starting from his first year of high school, he began serious study of art. With the money earned from his first part-time job at a local pickles factory, he purchased a bust of Saint George and began drawing plaster casts. He copied various photo books at home, replicated still life drawings by his eldest brother, and designed cassette tapes featuring his favorite musicians. On weekends, he regularly visited art museums. From the spring break of his first year, he attended Yoyogi Seminar’s art preparatory school. There, he first learned charcoal drawing but struggled to improve, so he transferred to the sculpture department for summer courses to better understand three-dimensional structure.

In the sculpture department, he focused on drawing nude figures and modeling animals, which sparked his interest in three-dimensional art. Though he wanted to pursue sculpture, based on advice from his father who specialized in advertising, he transferred to the design department at Suidobata Art Academy in his second year of high school. He started leaving school early to attend art prep school daily, where he further studied drawing and also began studying color composition. From his third year, he seriously aimed to enter Tokyo University of the Arts, where his father and eldest brother had studied. However, he failed the entrance exam and began a ronin (repeat examinee) year at prep school. He changed his course to the crafts department, where his father and brother had specialized, and studied art there during his ronin period. He spent three more years trying to enter Tokyo University of the Arts but repeatedly failed. After much struggle, on his fourth attempt, he returned to his original goal of the design department and enrolled in the Graphic Design Department at Tama Art University.

During university, he actively studied computer graphics and video, becoming deeply involved in digital expression. From his third year, he specialized in advertising and seriously considered a career at an advertising agency like his father. Ultimately, he joined the foreign-affiliated agency McCann Erickson as an art director, working on client projects for global companies such as Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. In his third year at the company, he met his wife Makiko at a friend’s event and married her. For their wedding, he expressed his love by drawing her portrait in pencil.Still, he felt a strong attraction to Dentsu, where his father had worked, and in his fifth year of work, after passing a mid-career recruitment exam, he joined Dentsu. There, he worked mainly as an art director for Japanese clients.

At Dentsu, his workload quickly doubled, and he handled an overwhelming amount of work. Although he sometimes felt lost about his future, he wanted to develop his own strengths. Alongside his friend Kentaro Kasahara, he started creating a series of paper three-dimensional works using OLFA cutters in Kasahara’s company garage. This paper sculpture series won various awards both in Japan and internationally. Later, he immersed himself in paper three-dimensional works in group exhibitions such as “PAPER TYPOGRAPHY” with his friend Masahiro Gunji, deepening his interest in relief expression, which lies between two- and three-dimensional art. During this period, his father’s Alzheimer’s disease progressed, and his facial expressions began to fade. Around that time, Hideto created brand advertisements for Staedtler pencils. Encouraged strongly by Shinya Nakajima, a professor at Tama Art University and the director of Staedtler’s advertising, he drew his father’s portrait and a bouquet of flowers with pencils as brand advertisements. This became the most densely worked pencil drawing of his life. His father passed away two years later.

In 2017, Hideto held a joint art exhibition “ART BY THE HAND” at Spiral Gallery in Omotesando. During the exhibition, he reunited with his former teacher Satoru Ozaki from prep school. Invited by Ozaki, they traveled together to New York to see the Armory Show, where Ozaki’s work was exhibited and sold. Witnessing this inspired Hideto to pursue the path of an artist. On this trip, he met curator Kentaro Totsuka at the hpgrp Gallery in Tribeca. After returning to Japan, Hideto compiled a portfolio of his works and future ideas, presented it to Totsuka, and secured opportunities to exhibit in New York. Around this time, his desire to focus more on his own original work grew stronger, leading him to leave Dentsu and establish his own creative company, Hand Inc. For four years, with Totsuka’s support, he exhibited annually at the art on paper fair in New York.His works began selling regularly, and in 2022 he moved into a studio in Bogart, Brooklyn. He held several open studios locally and connected with many local artists. Introduced by a New York-based gallerist, he held a solo exhibition at 4 Flavor Gallery, where many works were sold. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he temporarily suspended overseas activities and focused on his work in Tokyo.

In 2024, upon recommendation from Satoru Ozaki, he participated in an art project organized in Ushiku City, Chiba Prefecture, creating a giant mural based on three-dimensional message works. Later, introduced by his friend and artist Keiichi Baba, he had the opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at YUGEN GALLERY.

Hideto believes that his life has been a continuous accumulation of experiences, which he incorporates into his artistic expression. Using familiar materials like paper and styrene board, he applies three-dimensional techniques learned from craft and sculpture, and incorporates copywriting skills developed in advertising as unique three-dimensional messages. Sometimes he fuses pencil drawings; other times he uses acrylic gouache from his two-dimensional compositions to add color, building his three-dimensional works. His base is digital design using Adobe Illustrator. By repeatedly drawing and layering, his works gain a distinctive aura unique to him. He will continue to create evolving works into the future.