Behind The Scenes "Deybra & Pup Pup"

I was honored to curate  a retrospective exhibition for Kauai artist, Sally French at the Hui No' eau in Makawao, Hawaii. 

Her work gives us a humorous look within, and opens the idea about being playful and bold with imagination.  She relies on spontaneity and sardonic wit to imbue her work with fantasy. Her  human and animal characters project good and bad behavior  that question civilization in general.  

My final exhibit as Gallery Director  at MACC brought together ten Kanaka 'Ōiwi artists with new work channeled through  'ike: knowledge gained through experience, and guided through sound teachings,  rooted in ka w ā  ma mua, the time gone before and ka w ā  ma hope, the time yet to come.  ' Ō lelo Hawaii was woven through out the entirety of the exhibition providing focus  the language of Hawai 'i.

Bernice Akamine, Kala 'i Blakemore, Hoaka Delos Reyes, Solomon Enos, 

P ō kahu Kaho 'hanohano, Lehuauakea, Kawika Lum nelmida, Meleanna Aluli Meyer, Auli 'i Mitchell, 

Cory Kamehanaok āla Holt Taum.

 The overall focus of this exhibition was to enhance public awareness and encourage thoughtful process and engagement in social and civic discussion for a better understanding of the complex issues that we face today. 

The artists were Sandow Birk, Elyse Pignolet, Orly Cogan, Abigail Romanchak- Jokiel, Kanani Miyamoto, and Paul Mullowney.  

The community was ignited by this work.

Sidney Yee is an established artist from Hawaii whose work embodies the chronology of his life growing up as a local Chinese in the islands.   

The concept of wabi-sabi, correlates with Zen Buddhism and dates back thousands of years; it is about the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Selections for this exhibition offered a progressive reflection of Sidney Yee’s mindful journey, revealing his  philosophy and approach to simplicity and the process of acceptance. 

Illuminatus  was a retrospective honoring the life's work  of Maui artist 

Piero Resta (1940 – 2015).

I went through hundreds of drawings,paintings , and sculptures, to present a narrative about his  continued reinvention as an artist.

He was immersed in the alchemy of philosophy, poetry, and people. He embraced the world as a master storyteller, navigating between natural and mythological worlds. He was a good friend, and artist in all things. 

 Akihiko Izukura is a  master textile artist from Japan. I went to his atelier in Kyoto and learned about his philosophy to honor sustainability and symbiosis with nature in  his silk work. 

For his Maui exhibition, Izukura created a large 30 x 60 ft. site- specific installation made of woven silk in a large ovoid form, supported by bamboo, that visitors could walk through. His tunnel-like structure resembled a giant silkworm cocoon, with three 8 ft. diameter orbs inside, one spun by ten thousand silkworms and two others made by Izukura out of cocoons. I commissioned San Francisco-based composer Christopher Willits to create a sound collage which completed the feeling of meditation. Perfection.

  Wes Bruce was the MACC’s first artist-in-residence. His concept for Taken By Wonder was centralized around the fictional research space of a group of outsiders and the discovery of their existence on an unknown island. The result was a fort made up of 13 rooms with staircases, secret chambers, and clues about the inhabitants.  

Visitors could explore the caverns and chambers of the space finding artifacts, maps, and remnants of world civilizations, photographs, field samples, illustrations and writings. This project had the most impact on community engagement I could imagine. 

People still talk about it.