The Art Studio is again dark (for just one weekend) as Allison Uttley has packed up her work and moved back to the University.  As hoped, Uttley’s time here has garnered her some vision and clarity on future work.  Keep an eye on this artist, she’s on the cusp of big things.  

She left the Academy with this parting note:

All of the foil is flattened and Gallery 31 is empty. I admit that I felt that same sinking feeling as I pushed the helium methodically out of each balloon, as you might feel waking up to the remnants of a recently ended bash, all the while knowing that it was great while it lasted. 

I wanted to take a moment to say that I am entirely grateful for the space provided by the Academy and the opportunities it afforded.  I was able to work and install simultaneously as well as collect feedback from some excellent sources including my own thesis committee from UH Manoa (Gaye Chan, Charles Cohan, Mary Babcock, and Chae Ho Lee), and Academy professionals Steven Little, Shawn Eichman, Vince Hazen (at Linekona), and Theresa Papanikolas–who reminded me of my love for Dadaist traditions and encouraged me to set the sculptures free!  

Thank you also to everyone in the education department, and especially Maika’i Tubbs and Aaron Padilla who were available for my every whim including some much needed encouragement and comic relief.

Finally, I would like to thank all of the visitors who engaged my imagination with their drawings and conversation. 

My next step is to continue my research into the world of inflatables during my final months as a graduate student. I will be sure to keep you informed of future projects. All the best, Allison

Last Friday’s Joy of Sake at the Honolulu Academy of Arts opened with a sake ceremony, and continued with amazing brews and food. If you were one of the 1,200 people who came to sample and have fun—thanks! See if you can spot yourself in the photo gallery.
continue reading "Scenes from the Joy of Sake"

Dustin Lance Black, left, took the Oscar for best original screenplay for “Milk.” Now he drops into paradise for the 20th Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival at Doris Duke Theatre. Talk about star power. The great lineup of films takes you from a Honolulu beauty salon (Kevyn Fong’s “Beauty Brawl“—”oh shit, oh shit…BEAUTY BRAWL!”) to a day in the lives of South London hunks (Adrian Shergold’s “Clapham Junction“). No matter what gender you like in your bed, these are films you want to see.

Are you a filmmaker? The fest is sponsoring a “Show Us Your Rainbow” contest—upload your video on YouTube by May 20. 

See the Star Bulletin article on the festival.
See the full schedule and buy tickets online.

Festival organizers Jeff Davis, Connie Florez, Jack Law and Richard Reese are on the cover of this month’s Expression! magazine.

Freelance writer Ray Pace has launched Honolulu Arts Beat, an e-zine that covers “music, entertainment and culture.” It has a big focus on visual arts too, and includes a piece on “Celebration,” the 25th anniversary exhibition of the Hawaii Quilt Guild now on view at the Academy Art Center at Linekona. Mahalo! (Disclosure: Ray Price is a member of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Mahalo again!)

The Wikipedia Loves Art winner for the Honolulu Academy of Arts was announced this morning. Congratulations to Christopher Hu and Lisa Mandle who were the unbeatable team “Department of Trife!” They completed the hunt with 154 points total. Their prize packet includes Robert Frank’s “The Americans” photography book, 2 Friends of Film Friday memberships, and 4 passes to ARTafterDARK. Way to go!

Academy Director Stephen Little believes that the Academy is a place where everyone can have a transforming experience. An interesting 10-week UH Outreach course that starts on March 30 could make your next Academy visit even more transformative. Instructor James Garrison is teaching “Phil 306: Philosophy of Art.” “The course will be a survey of aesthetic philosophy,” says Garrison. “We will concentrate (though not exclusively) on how philosophers through the ages have thought about the relationship between beauty and truth. You don’t have to be a philosopher to join. Anyone who enjoys art and reflecting on art will find something to enjoy.” On his flyer, Garrison asks “Is this beautiful?” next to images of the Mona Lisa, Duchamp’s notorious urinal (pictured) and a minimalist Japanese tearoom. (If you said no to the second one, in 2004 it was named in a poll of 500 art experts as the most influential work of modern art ever.) His class could yield interesting answers. The class meets on Monday and Wednesday evenings. And Garrison said assignments include visits to the Academy. Yay. Need help registering? Contact Garrison directly, he’s happy to help: jamesmg@hawaii.edu.

The stats of this blog are endlessly fascinating. The stats page tells us what other websites have links to aloHAA, it tells us how many people visit the blog each day, it tells us which posts are the most popular. But most interesting is the list of terms people use to find the blog. Today someone landed here by typing “don ed hardy the person.” Yesterday someone wanted to find out more about “female body painting.” (I can’t figure out what we’ve tagged that would make aloHAA show up for that one.) And our own assistant curator of education, Aaron Padilla, was the topic of five searches. Aaron, were you googling yourself? Huh?

Brian Malanaphy’s “Manana Street Tryptich”

Thanks to everyone who showed-up at the last ARTafterDARK, “Mughal” on  February 27, we had a great turnout of participants (cameras in hand) for our final meet-up for Wikipedia Loves Art. About 22 teams showed up that night and more than a dozen more interested museum-goers stopped by to find out what was going on. (That’s me biting the sign and Lesa Griffith, Academy Director of Communications).
Now we are in tally mode. Thanks to our friends at the Brooklyn Museum who are scanning through all of the pics, making sure all snapshots are accounted for and the correct points are given. Here at HAA we are captioning the images to hopefully be used on Wikipedia! We will announce the winner of the Wiki Loves Art challenge as soon as we tally and judge the hundreds of pics submitted—we want to make sure we get it right!

In the meantime, if you participated you’ll find updates on the Wikipedia Loves Art Flickr page and our blog.

Artists Matt Kubo, Alan Konishi, Vince Hazen and Michael Sweitzer of the AV Club of Honolulu (Image by Ginger Gohier)

If you missed the Honolulu Printmakers 81st Annual Juried Exhibition opening last week, have no fear, you can still check it out at the Academy’s Linekona Art Center. On view through March 13, this is the largest print exhibition of the year in Hawaii, featuring works by contemporary printmakers statewide. Organized by Honolulu Printmakers, this year’s juror is Michael Krueger, associate professor of art at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

What you did miss however, was a stellar exhibition from the AV Club of Honolulu which consists of artists Matt Kubo, Alan Konishi, Vince Hazen, Michael Sweizter and Duncan Dempster. With three typewriters (remember those?) a long sheet of paper that fed through each machine, and each typewriter rigged with a microphone, each key placed sounded like a gun shot…piping through guitar amps nearby. 

In the vein of “Whose Line is it Anyway,” on-lookers were invited to give topics for the artists to write about. When AV Club Member and Academy Art Center Curator, Vince Hazen handed me a tiny Post-It and said “Here write a topic” I wrote the first thing that came to my mind…”80’s hair bands.” I think Mat Kubo got my topic. I wish I would have had more time during all of the excitement to see what his report consisted of.  The performance was definitely a crowd pleaser. The AV Club was asked back a second time later that evening.

(Image by Ginger Gohier)