Maui art show considerably better than previous year's

By Virginia Wageman
Advertiser Art Critic

Art Maui. Schaefer International Gallery, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Kahului. Through April 8. 244-8272. www.ArtMaui.com

Neida Bangerter, "Couples," acrylic on canvas on plywood board. Steve Brinkman

There are many fine works, to be sure. Memorable is Sidney T.K. Yee's "Soul (Sole) Food," a three-piece painting on collaged papers mounted on wood. The papers are Sunday comics, lending a lightness to the somber scene that's further relieved by the play on words in the title.

Uri Blayer's "Sugar Mill" captures the grimness of a dying industry with its array of abandoned machinery strewn across a field. The airplane in Howard Lapp's factory scene is a harbinger of the tourist revenue that would replace King Sugar as Maui's primary industry.

Maui's sunnier aspect as a place of rare beauty is well-depicted in colorful landscapes and flower scenes by Margaret Bedell, Pamela Hayes, Denise Henning, JoAnne Hanson Adams, George Allan, Brent Cotton and Kit Gentry, among others.

Several Maui artists are superb abstractionists, and it is always a pleasure to see paintings by Evan Asato and Tadashi Sato. A serene blue and green abstraction by Akira Iha also pleases. More robust abstractions by Don Shamblin and Stuart Sharp are worthy of note, as well.

A large kinship painting by David Graves intrigues by its obsessive tangle of lines, while an India ink drawing by Nelson Flack combines obsession with grace in its incredibly complicated design.

Richard Nelson's watercolor titled "Source," with layers of luscious colors, was selected to be the publicity image for next year's Art Maui. Nelson is a founder of Art Maui and surely well deserves the honor.

Three artists, Neida Bangerter, Ed Lane and Christy Vail, stand out for their conceptual pieces. Bangerter's paired portraits, which can be interactively moved about by the viewer to create different couples, speaks to ethnic and social perceptions.

In the three panels of "100 Years ... 100,000,000 Lives," Lane presents portraits of historical figures linked with war and human oppression. These figures are particularly scary in their seeming humanity.

Both Bangerter's and Lane's pieces are rather roughly assembled, but maybe the point is to be crude. In contrast, Vail's piece-in the form of an abacus with ceramic heads for the counters-is exquisitely executed.

Photography is not particularly well-represented. Aside from Steve Brinkman's haunting photos of an abandoned building being overtaken by jungle, there is little of merit. What is the point, artistically,

of printing color photographs as giclÚes on watercolor paper, as is done with several images in the show? The technique may lend a desired softness, but it's not effective in the works exhibited.

There are fine wood pieces, most of which incorporate native or indigenous woods. Wayne Omura's elegantly formed tall vessel made of turned Norfolk Island pine glows in its rich golden tones. Also beautiful are wood vessels by Walace Terui and Everett Noetzel and wood furniture by Mats Fogelvik, Robert Lippoth and Peter Naramore.

Particularly striking among fiber pieces is Elaine Gima's elegant painted silk dress, which literally shimmers, as does Debra Mamalias' white weaving titled "Maunakea Moon."

Among notable works in other media are an intaglio print by Kent Hattersley and an etching by Belinda Ling, Pat Masumoto's acrylic and pencil collage, a porcelain teapot by Ali Linschoten and a slender ceramic vase by Denise Phillips and Matt James, Betty-Jane Pefley's colored pencil rendering of a heiau, a hammered silver brooch by Maggie Siegfried and a glass vase by Tom Trottier.

In mixed-media sculpture, Anthony "Shane" Delos Reyes' "Ka makau o ka lawai'i" is a splendid fishhook carved of basalt with a mango wood and sandstone base.

Unfortunately, Tom Sewell's installation wasn't working when I saw the show. His imaginative, photography-based works have been high spots of Art Maui in previous years.

Juror for the exhibition was Los Angeles-based critic Peter Frank. Questioned by e-mail about the show, he responded: "Overall, the level of technical accomplishment in Art Maui was higher than I normally see in the regional shows I get to jury on the Mainland. This probably attests to the role of art in Maui as a touristic commodity/phenomenon than as a realm of expression and ideation. But if the strong thinkers among the bunch are also maintaining high production values because their milieu demands it of them, so much the better."

He went on to say that there was "a lot of fine landscape painting to choose from, a bunch of strong jewelry and woodwork, and a few startling political pieces." Frank selected only one work by each artist included so as to allow representation of as many artists as possible.

It's a huge show with 171 works (808 were entered) - up from last year's 134 works. Lynn Shue's imaginative exhibition design shows all the pieces to good effect, with only a few perhaps too high on the wall to be adequately seen.

Virginia Wageman can be reached at VWageman@aol.com