04/15/2026
Our newest menu is based on our current artist…. Hallie Maxwell. Hallie is a Japanese American interdisciplinary artist based in Boise, Idaho. She works with installation, audio, video, drawing, and performance. Maxwell received her MFA in Visual Arts from Boise State University in 2024 and her BA in Art from California Lutheran University in 2019. Maxwell was awarded as 2025’s Emerging Artist from the City of Boise’s Mayor and is a recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s 2023 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. In 2025, Idaho PTV’s episode “Alternate Heirlooms: Hallie Maxwell” received a Northwest Regional Emmy® Award. She has participated in Artist in Residence programs at Cove Park, the James Castle House, Surel’s Place, and the Common Well. Maxwell is a descendant of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Her work studies themes such as generational trauma, loss, and disconnection from cultural identity.
Artist Statement
With my work I explore the formation of identity through displacement and reckoning with the past. As a descendant of hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, I have inherited sets of complex lived experiences tied to migration, loss, and trauma. Through the use of traditional Japanese materials, I show an attempt at bridging my exterior and interior identities. My use of these materials becomes an act of translation of my lived and inherited experience as I reverse their traditional expectations. My work is not a reflection of Japanese or Japanese American culture, but rather speaks of the journey I take in understanding identity. I take a personal and confessional approach, trying to make sense of seemingly inconceivable family histories. I want participants to feel like they know my family, lessening the barrier between them and a not-so-distant past. With the passage of time, age, and gaps in understanding between generations, the understanding of what is real becomes blurred.
