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This month, we sat down with Hayato Matsushita, an interdisciplinary conceptual artist and researcher based right here in Philadelphia, whose work treats American history like a puzzle box waiting to be cracked open. Sculptor by training, treasure hunter by temperament, Hayato spends his days at NextFab connecting dots that most of us would never think to draw between geometry, the founding fathers, and the city of Philadelphia itself.
Hayato’s path into art wasn’t a straight line. He arrived at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City intending to study industrial design, but the program didn’t exist there. Instead, he found his way into sculpture, and into the orbit of a professor who would shape his entire practice: Hans Haacke, the celebrated conceptual artist who taught Hayato for all four years of his BFA. That mentorship, paired with a lifelong pull toward geometry and pattern, set the foundation for the work Hayato makes today.
“I like things that make sense, things that have logic and reason,” he explains. “That’s part of beauty for me, not just visual, but something that makes sense.” It’s that search for hidden logic, for a kind of visual proof, that drives nearly everything in his studio practice.
For more than two decades, Hayato has been fascinated by the founding of the United States, its history, its symbolism, and the people behind it. That fascination is part of what brought him to Philadelphia two and a half years ago after a lifetime in New York City. With the city gearing up for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, Hayato says there was no better place to be doing this work. The shift from a sprawling metropolis to a quieter city also gave him something just as valuable as inspiration: room to think.
Hayato works primarily in wood, and after a search for studio space he couldn’t quite justify on his own, joining NextFab made sense. The table saw and other woodworking equipment get the most use in his current body of work, but he’s already looking ahead. After his upcoming show closes, Hayato plans to dive into welding and start exploring metal fabrication.
Ask Hayato to describe his process and he’ll tell you it isn’t a formula. He calls his philosophy “chance and strategy”: a general sense of direction paired with a willingness to let discovery lead the way. The results read like a string of small revelations.
He’s found that the proportions of the American flag align with the golden ratio. He’s discovered that the six-pointed stars on a historic George Washington flag correspond with patterns found in the Flower of Life. Looking closely at the handwritten word “America” in the Declaration of Independence, he noticed that the unusual shape of a single letter mirrors the layout of Philadelphia’s own street grid, Market Street, Broad Street, the rivers, all of it. He’s even traced the floor plan of Independence Hall against the proportions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, lining up the building’s central tower with the figure’s head.
One of his favorite stories involves a sculpture he installed years ago featuring a geometric pattern centered on a model of the Washington Monument. Two years after he made it, a nearly identical design appeared etched into the grounds of the actual monument in Washington, D.C.
His current show builds on last year’s exhibition, which focused on the American flag and the 56 signers of the Declaration. This time, the lens shifts toward William Penn and the original design of Philadelphia itself, including the city’s five public squares and how they align with the rest of his research.
Outside of this historically-rooted body of work, Hayato also runs Letterportrait, a side project where he designs custom typographic art from names, stacking letters into symmetrical compositions perfect for nurseries, weddings, or housewarming gifts. It’s a smaller-scale expression of the same instinct: finding hidden order and beauty in everyday symbols.
When asked what he wants people to know, Hayato turns the question back toward the work itself. “I want people to be more curious, to have wonder,” he says. “Be more like a child, not childish, but open-eyed, seeing the world differently. I think we lose that as we get older. We stop dreaming and get too practical.”
Hayato’s research, sculpture, and discoveries came together this summer in Esoteric America: The Holy Experiment, a new exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of the United States through artwork exploring symbolism, geometry, history, and the country’s founding ideals. His exhibition is focused specifically on William Penn and the original design of Philadelphia.
Opening Reception Dates First Friday, July 3, 2026 | 5:00 – 9:00 PM PII Gallery, 242 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Exhibition Dates: July 3-31, 2026
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment 732.668.4735
Hayato also participated in a companion show, Esoteric America: Founding Design, which opened the same evening at Cherry Street Pier.
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Written in partnership with FORMATION. Media