Biennial artworks reflect dedication of six creators

By Virginia Wageman
Advertiser Art Critic

Since the late 1980s, six artists, Bobby Crockett, Denise DeVone, Linda Gue, Jinja Kim, Laura Smith and Liz Train, have been exhibiting together every other year, each presenting a body of nine works. Hence the show's title: 9 x 6.

•	9 x 6 Biennial • Art Gallery, Hawai'i Pacific University • Through Nov. 23 • 544-0287 Jenkins & Ross • Susie Anderson • The Gallery at Ward Centre • Through Nov. 20 • 597-8034 Shota Houri • Queen Emma Gallery • Through Nov. 25 • 537-7167

Crockett's digital images are evocative representations of place. Executed in black and white, they almost have the look of traditional photographs, albeit ones with a soft focus and multiple exposures, the overlayering achieved by computer manipulation.

Only one of the prints has color: the red, white and blue of an American flag inserted in an image of a graveyard in the Netherlands. This tribute to Sept. 11 seems contrived, though generally the computer manipulation of elements in Crockett's work results in coherent, balanced compositions.

According to exhibition curator Carol Khewhok, who has seen each of the group's biennials since their inception, the artist who always surprises with something new is DeVone, a former Hawai'i resident who lives in New Jersey. DeVone's contribution to this year's show is a series of paintings that combine ancient Greek imagery with the vegetation of Hawai'i.

The nine paintings, each a similar slim panel, share the same Greek-derived imagery; different in each panel is the tropical foliage. The juxtaposition of formal classical elements with the lush Hawai'i imagery sets up a dialogue between elements — ancient vs. contemporary; dead vs. living; man-made vs. nature.

Gue's contribution to the show is a group of vessels made from paper, painted with acrylic and supported on wire stands. Each is an exquisite sculptural object, with color and design the primary focus. Gue's combinations of warm colors — orange, purple, red, yellow, green — are especially intriguing.

Working with mixed media, Kim has created whimsical meditations on language. Her "B as in Boo," with references to all sorts of "B" words, would be perfect for a children's alphabet book.

Kim uses rub-on letters and numbers, rubber stamps, tracings, transfers, handwriting and drawings to create engaging works on paper, a similar technique she used on pieces on display at the Contemporary Museum at the First Hawaiian Center.

As usual, Smith doesn't let us down. For this show, she made a series of prints related to a 16th-century Italian villa — the same subject as her prints in the last 9 x 6 biennial. The earlier prints focused on the villa's floor plan, while her latest works highlight the doorways and windows.

Enlivening the compositions in both instances is their underlying theme, a birthday party. Through the villa's windows we see sketches of people at the party. In one print, the front door opens to reveal the host, and in another the hostess is at the doorway.

But the story is simply a framework for the exploration of architectural motifs, their patterns and colors all beautifully rendered in the prints.

Train customarily works with bright colors and childlike imagery. For this year's biennial she made appliqued wall pieces with gaily dyed fabrics and stitching. Painted or appliqued images — including ladders, the sun, flowers and stick-like figures — have to do with passages of life. These pieces are simultaneously fun and serious in theme.

Glassworks featured

The Gallery at Ward Centre is showing glassworks by Hugh Jenkins and Stephanie Ross as well as paintings by Susie Anderson.

The profound influence of the Big Island's landscape, where Jenkins and Ross live and work, is reflected in their glassworks. Their subjects are fire, flowers, water and sky. It might be said that they make landscapes in glass.

The work continues vessels in the Fire Scene series, which are inspired by volcanic flows. Also included are works from their Tide series, suggestive of the water's edge. Several gorgeous vases evoke flowering jacaranda and coral trees.

Also exhibited are beautiful small objects of vividly colored blown glass, including paper weights, bud vases and spheres. In golden red, yellow, copper blue, light green, ruby and violet, together they evoke the colors of a rainbow.

Anderson's paintings are Hawai'i landscapes, made on location at sites around the islands. She is particularly adept at capturing the delicate balance of light at dawn, evident in such works as "Poamoho Sunrise" and "First Blush." Graceful coconut palms and towering pali are also evocatively rendered, as in "Twin Palms."

Anderson's landscapes depict the kind of scenes from which Ross and Jenkins might have distilled their glassworks, and the pairing of the shows in the Ward Centre space is particularly successful.

Drawings delightful

If you happen to be at The Queen's Medical Center, stop in to see the drawings by Shota Houri in the Queen Emma Gallery.

Houri, a 1992 graduate with a bachelor's in fine arts from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, lives in Japan. The drawings are in pen and ink and represent scenes from his everyday life. These are delightful works, quickly drawn, engaging sketches that document the artist's apartment and neighborhood.

Virginia Wageman can be reached at VWageman@aol.com.