Jace Hermanto

Jace Hermanto (he/they)  is a multimedia artist who combines print with puppetry. Through  myth-making and embodiment, their work questions the nature of power dynamics in searching for social change. Currently, they are examining the materiality/immateriality of shadow puppetry to speculate on the "iconification" of marginalized identity.

Jace explores what it means to not control, but embody the puppet itself as an inanimate being. He views this practice as both a form of protection and an exercise in decentering himself. In dissolving their individual personhood and becoming a puppet, they experience the puppet’s existence and decenter their own. In his most recent work, he uses materials and mediums that contrast each other in materiality, ranging from the ethereal shadow to the tangible press of ink to paper in printmaking to draw attention to the tangible power that is often masked by the immaterial or inanimate.

Through the liminal figure of the puppet, Jace draws awareness to the covert but concrete mechanisms of power and prompt viewers to sit with and think about their discomfort in confronting someone or something that cannot be understood.

Jace received a B.F.A in 2D arts from the University of Tennessee in 2022, and will receive an M.F.A in Printmaking from Arizona State University in 2027. He is also a research assistant for ASU's Bookarts and Letterpress studio and the Pyracantha Press, which houses one of the largest collections of metal type in North America, artist’s archives, and a historic 1834 Columbian printing press.