Queen Emma Gallery honors alumni; small jewels on paper
By Virginia Wageman
Advertiser Art Critic
The tiny Queen Emma Gallery, tucked into a corner of the entrance lobby of the Queen's Medical Center, has for 25 years mounted shows primarily of up-and-coming artists who have yet to make their mark on the art world.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
To celebrate the 25th anniversary, curator Masa Taira invited every person still working as an artist today whose very first show was at the Queen Emma Gallery to participate in the exhibition "Beginner's Mind." The title comes from the Zen saying, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities."
"He Kumuka'au Pele," a set of two "volcanic trees" woven of vine rattan, is a current work by fiber artist Pam Barton, who first exhibited at the Queen Emma Gallery in 1985.
Of the 50 artists invited, 23 responded. And what a roll call of today's celebrated artists it is, among them Pam Barton, Sally French, Clarence Lee, Alan Leitner, Chiu Leong, Rick Mills, Hwa Ja Park, Dodie Warren and George Woollard.
Add Kimberley Chai, Keiko Hatano, Snowden Hodges, Bradley Koki, David Landry, Takeo Miji, Sonchai Nisayaphantha, Darrell Orwig, Lalani Segool, Boyd Sugiki, Kathy Tosh, Liz Train, and two artists now living on the Mainland, Willa Cox and Lei-Sanne Doo.
Several of the artists, including Snowden Hodges, Dodie Warren and George Woollard, chose to submit two pieces, apparently one from their earlier show and one from more current work.
Woollard's progression is particularly dramatic — from an able but traditional watercolor landscape of 1977 to his "Rainforest Retreat" of 2001, an unfettered mixed-media abstraction that literally explodes with dynamic action and vivid colors.
Unfortunately, lack of dating in the documentation for the show makes it impossible in most cases for one to know if a work is an earlier or a current piece. But that information is really of interest mainly to the "historian."
Most will simply enjoy seeing the fine selection of work by some of Hawai'i's favorite artists.
'Works on Paper'
A small show of works on paper upstairs at the Academy Art Center shouldn't be missed when you visit "Wo/man and Beast" downstairs (reviewed last week, and a must to see). Both shows close a week from today.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Of the pieces exhibited, the grandest is David Landry's wood sculpture "Everything Is Beautiful," which fulfills the show's mandated medium by its placement on torn pieces of wrapping paper. The wooden forms, standing like sentinels in the gallery space, have a power that belies their simplicity of form and materials.
Alan Leitner's "Black Bird," 1999, a painting in oil, alkyd and wax on canvas, is very different from the drawings of women that he exhibited in 1977 at the Queen Emma Gallery.
Also in the show are "real" works on paper: prints by Kimberly Chai, watercolors by Faith D. Milnes and prints and pencil drawings by Marcia Pasqua. Chai's compositions, based on water garden imagery, are splendid examples of printmaking. Especially notable are "Hanging Heliconia" and "Plumeria E.V.," both of which incorporate organic and architectural motifs.
Milnes bases her imagery on Hans Christian Anderson stories. Her watercolors should be in children's books, if they are not already (especially considering that there are so many with poor illustrations).
The prints and drawings of Pasqua derive their theme from a live oak tree on the property of her grandparents in Louisiana. Pasqua uses this "family tree" to serve as a metaphor for self-exploration, viewing it in different seasons and from different angles, and exploring it with varying techniques.
- Beginner's Mind
- Queen Emma Gallery, the Queen's Medical Center
- Through April 22 537-7167
- www.queens.org
- "Works on Paper"
- Academy Art Center, Honolulu Academy of Arts
- Through April 15
- 532-8700
