ART REVIEW
Glass exhibit reflects diverse, magical properties of form

By Victoria Gail-White

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Hot Glass Hawai'i New Glass by Hawai'i artists Through June 8 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays The ARTS at Marks Garage, 1159 Nu'uanu Ave. 521-2903 "Hell Broke Loose and other Drawings" By Rosalinda Kolb "Surface," works By Koi Ozu Through July 26 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Mondays- Saturdays, closed Sundays Hawai'i Pacific University Art Gallery, 45-045 Kamehameha Highway, Kane'ohe 544-0287 "Color Revisited" Paintings by Mike Breen Through Friday 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Tuesdays-Fridays Art Center of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Second Floor Gallery 1111 Victoria St.

Worked on from ovens of blisteringly high temperatures (2,200 degrees), molten glass can be blown or cast. Glass fabrication, another glass art form, involves assembling cold glass elements.

Silica, sodium and calcium are the simple chemicals that are melted into the beautiful and complex shapes presently enchanting visitors to the "New Glass by Hawai'i Artists" exhibit at The ARTS at Marks Garage.

The Hot Glass Hui began in 1995, when a group of former University of Hawai'i glass students and local glass artists decided to organize and plan a course of action. Part of that action includes exhibits, demonstrations and educational programs. This statewide exhibition is sponsored by the Hot Glass Hui, Hawai'i Craftsmen and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The Hui, responsible for the installation of the show, used the rambling space, track lights and pedestals well.

Rick Mills, president of the hui and a professor of the burgeoning glass art program at the University of Hawai'i (which operates without any classroom space) has three pieces in the show. Two of them, "Sentience" and "Sentience Nocturne," are large sculptural shapes of solid-formed colored glass layers with bronze bases. "Aurora with Ebi Wrap" is a flame-colored vase wrapped in a snake-like surround of glass.

Mills' color works are juxtaposed against Ruben Tapia's "Medusa," a clear blown-glass jellyfish illuminated to accentuate its delicate, long glass tendrils.

Landon Kaneshiro has a corner of the exhibit that affords us a peek at the stages of development from the initial drawings of his glass work, "Untitled."

Jennifer Chow contributes a series of glass drums, "The Other" (blown, enameled and mixed media). Misato Mortara (who has also created striking scent bottles) offers a "Poha Platter" of fruit.

Mark Mitsuda and Boyd Sugiki's linear, fine-lined vases and tumblers are notable, as are the classic shapes of Bruce Clark.

Richard Duggan's "Pohu," a sculptural glass work that was sandblasted, slumped and enameled, demonstrates his growth as a glass artist. Compared to his earlier blown glass shapes, his recent work is a complex celebration of techniques rooted in the Hawaiian culture ("Ipu'aina" and "Kapu Loa," also in the exhibit).

"Nightscape Vase" and "Nightscape Platter" by Michael Mortara are rich midnight-colored cobalt glass works with titillations of silver and scarlet.

After close examination, "Cocoon" by William Grix reveals an outline of a full-grown human form hanging upside down in a clear kiln glass covering. Pastel-colored glass nails surround the upper foot section of the sculpture and suggest a lightness of being, a spring birth, despite the suffocating intensity of the human cocoon.

This Hot Glass Hui exhibit is not only an exhibit; it is an event. Take an afternoon off, visit Marks Garage and lunch at any of the delicious, reasonably priced Chinese, Indian, Thai or Vietnamese restaurants nearby.

Glass is a cooled hot dream. For more information about the hui and their workshops or the UH glass art program, contact Rick Mills at 956-5258 or e-mail him at rmills8189@aol.com.

"Our ongoing evolution as a species is an exhilarating and excruciating affair, a medley of masterpieces and monstrosities," writes Rosalind Kolb in her artist statement.

"Will we ultimately rise to the occasion as curators of the planet? Or will our undoing be something so silly as our addiction to convenience?"

Her introspective drawings of pastel and colored pencil on paper are poetic metaphors. Decorative design elements and atmospheric fields connect many of the compositions such as "Beauty and the Beast" and "Lost Chakras."

In "Rodeo of the Unborn," a red corral encircles five wide strokes of silver, with one darker graphic stroke dotted by flower-like pencil shapes. It is a powerful work in its striking simplicity.

The title piece, "Hell Broke Loose," shows a breaking open of two flame-hot and smoking tubes. Sparks and outlined shadowed shapes tumble into an abyss.

"I suspect humankind possesses the necessary nuts and bolts to knock together a harmonious world," she writes. "So why don't we? It occurs to me that the Inevitable Event we strive to postpone might just be our own Enlightenment." Wise words.

Koi Ozu, a 1999 graduate of the University of Hawai'i ceramics program, confronts the media's relentless sexual influences in his series of "Uji Uji Poles." Inspired by Jun Kaneko and Ryan Higa's drawings, this is Ozu's first solo exhibit.

"Artists reflect their culture," says Ozu. "We are bombarded by sexual stimuli. Eventually, it all comes to the surface."

In "Surface," Ozu offers an organic and a comic view in the 22 ceramic phallic forms on exhibit.

The works on both sides of the gallery are more daunting from a seated position. The extra height in the viewing plane (while seated on the sofas) gives the more organic, unglazed "Uji Uji Poles" (with rusted nails, metal rings and spiny surface textures —uji is pidgin for disgusting) the illusion of emerging from a dangerous lingam forest.

The more futuristic "Uji Uji Poles" incorporate duct tape, fake flies, aluminum foil and black cord into their erect sculptural shapes. This group appears to be the high-tech version of the more organic grouping. My preference tends to the organic.

"I see myself as a person intensely interested in color," says Mike Breen. His recent exhibit of a dozen oil and acrylic paintings at the Art Center of the Honolulu Academy of Arts bears out this statement.

Brilliant colors and floating abstract shapes pop out from the walls on the Second Floor Gallery.

"Angels," a painting with four half white and black cylindrical shapes suspended horizontally, is bordered in red. In "Good Times," four blue columns attached to a blue rectangle float above pink clouds in a bright yellow field of color.

Breen borders each of his Neo-Modernist paintings with organically-shaped design elements. His fascination and fearlessness in painting with vivid colors give his work a playful quality.

After spending most of his life as a clinical psychologist, he became a full-time artist eight years ago. However, his bio affords a look at a long list of group and solo shows from New York to Honolulu and dates his acceptance in the art world as 1985.

"Color Revisited" is surprisingly fun.