Pacific to Atlantic: Contemporary Artists // Hawaii

WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC presented a group exhibition of thirteen contemporary artists entitled Pacific to Atlantic. All the artists on view were connected to Hawaii. The cultural, social and environmental influences are present in their work and a source of inspiration. Hawaiians often say “the past holds the future,” and many of the artists have produced bodies of work that embrace the rich cross-culture of the islands.

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Pacific to Atlantic integrates Hawaii's growing hybrid of local and international contemporary arts and culture.

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On view in the gallery exhibition are woven wooden forms inspired by fishermen’s knots from Aaron Padilla; negotiations of cultural containment heard from the Native perspective of Kaili Chun; extraterrestrial Polynesian voyagers by Solomon Enos; sculptures utilizing problematic ocean debris morphed from the childhood nightmares of Aurora Robson; superpositions of purposeful insect damage on photographs of the U.S./Mexico Border from Gaye Chan; visual meditations on scientific colonialism from Jane Chang Mi; otherworldly forms painted and sculpted by John Koga; arguments of industrial and environmental warfare by Kapulani Landgraf; preservation of the human eye into totemic forms from Charlton Kupaa Hee; configurations of beach trash photographed by Lawrence Seward; examinations into intersection and transcendence captured on camera and film by Andrew Binkley; an austere view of the unadorned figure in the darkness of Berlin from Peter Shaindlin; and a euphoric window into traditional kava ceremonies from Taiji Terasaki.

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Collectively, the artists have relationships with the Oahu art community spearheaded by Honolulu Museum of Art and Spalding House, Hawaii State Art Museum, Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Bishop Museum, the University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Gallery, Honolulu Biennial and the Puuhonua Society.

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“‘Umia ka hanu! Hookahi ka umauma ke kipoohiwi i ke kipoohiwi.” Hold the breath, be patient and persist! Walk abreast shoulder to shoulder. Be of one accord, as in exerting every effort to lift a heavy weight to the shoulder and to keep together in carrying it along.
(Mary Kawena Pukui, Olelo Noeau, Honolulu Bishop Museum Press, 1983, #2876)

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Due to non conformity in digital use of diacritical markings of modern Hawaiian language, including the okina [`] or glottal stop and the kahakō [ō] or macron (e.g., in place names of Hawai`i such as Lāna`i), these markings have been omitted on this page to ensure no misrepresentation occurs in our text descriptions.