Big Island now offers some standout shows

By Amaury Saint-Gilles
Special to The Advertiser

The Big Island, where I live, seldom gets adequate coverage in the area of the arts, which is especially annoying when timing gives the two cultural venues in Hilo simultaneously excellent offerings:

• The Wailoa Center (933-0416) hosts the Big Island Woodworkers Guild annual show with a delicious array of finely crafted furniture and wood items that will entice you to open your wallets.

• The East Hawai'i Cultural Center hosts a threesome of exhibits in their historic venue facing Kalakaua Park in downtown Hilo. The delightful naif paintings of Barry Wilkinson fill one of the two smaller galleries while Trudee Siemann's ripe and lush photographic efforts in black and white are accompanied by the visually potent verse of Taeko Jane Takahashi in the makai gallery.

The central gallery is dominated by huge multihue figurative works by visiting Japan artist Yaeko Komiya. Her installation effects a sense of power and change to a space notoriously difficult to use.

All three shows at the EHCC and the annual wood show at Wailoa continue through Sept. 28 and are visually stunning efforts.