Posted on: Sunday, May 9, 2004
Big risks taken on tiny works
| Figure forms are central |
| Nowell's pint-size art captivating, amusing |
| 13 Island artists partake in creative game of painting shared canvases |
| Art Calendar |
By Victoria Gail-White
Special to The Advertiser
This show features work by Allyn Bromley, Gaye Chan, Jodi Endicott, Rene Iijima, Rochelle Lum, Ryan Higa, Sanit Khewhok, Alan and Birgitta Leitner, Masami Teraoka, Suzanne Wolfe, Maile Yawata, Franco Salmoiraghi, Kandi Everett, Cora Yee, Debbie Young, S. Kay Mura, Chuck Davis and Esther Shimazu, among others.
In a humorous mood, in fairly cartoon-like art works, are Maile Yawata's "valentina & the peas orchestra" (colored pencil and acrylic paint); Cora Yee's "flying tigers," "flying fish man" and "surfing pineapples" (acrylic and gold leaf paintings); Kandi Everett's "duck butter danger" (mixed media); Dave Tanji's "toko 1, 2 and 3" (sexy comic-book like series); Ryan Higa's "couldn't hardly" and "subjunctive mood" (narrative drawings); and Kevin Leong's "untitled x 3" (mixed media painted on animation cells). Sanit Khewhok's ink-on-paper series combines human heads on bird and dog bodies.
Sculpturally amusing is Esther Shimazu's stoneware male nude figure titled "itsy bitsies" and Corinne Kamiya's bronze "four birds" that move around when you turn the crank. Chuck Davis shelved his paints and sculpted three mixed-media desserts on wheels, "sweet chariots, 1,2 3".
The photographs of Gaye Chan, "(sea), (boy), (band)" are in lockets, while Rene Iijima's "letters home" are in a bottle and an antique compact in "beautiful."
An introspective aspect emerges from the tiny oil on canvas "virtual inferno/defender" painting by Masami Teraoka and Jodi Endicott's mixed-media "wish." There are small nudes painted by Isis Godfrey-Byrne, landscapes painted by Kelly Sueda, abstracts painted by Debbie Young and theatrical mixed-media "jokers" by Alan Leitner.
Suzanne Wolfe's lengthy-titled porcelain "Her original idea was to discover the balance between the woman and her nature. The project, however, developed its own momentum, and soon got out of hand" is a lovely but eerie sculpture of pink wings emerging from a cracked white covering.
The works in this show exude a sense of playfulness. The smaller format seems to have inspired some of these artists to take some full-sized risks.