Not only is Honolulu Academy of Arts Director Stephen Little an authority on Chinese art and the author of books such as Taoism and the Arts of China—he paints too.His first solo show opens tonight at the Pegge Hopper Gallery in Chinatown.
He recently took at life drawing class at the Academy Art Center at Linekona, which relit what he calls “a fire that burned.” The first paintings he did were in 1972, when he was an undergraduate student at Cornell studying Chinese art history.
“I always wanted to be a painter,” he says. And the group of paintings on view in “Ocean of Emptiness” come out of the concept he started more than 30 years ago.
“These are all imaginary landscapes,” explains Little. “They are influenced by two things—years of studying Chinese and Japanese painting, especially one particular Chinese artist, the 13th-century Zen monk named Muqi (also spelled Mu-ch’i, and pronounced moo-chee). He is a fantastic landscape painter, very minimal. All of my paintings are mostly empty, acrylic on canvas. Generally I use only two colors, cobalt oxide and iron oxide. The other influence is ideas of the way the world is structured that I learned form studying astronomy and Taoism. I’m looking for images that are ambiguous, paradoxical, and elusive.”
The image here doesn’t do the work justice. It has an ethereal feeling, like coming upon a ruined, ancient world in the distance.
How does he feel about his first exhibition? Responds Little, “This is very frightening and exciting.”
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
In school, I had a professor use the term “Art Gap” a lot during critiques. Not sure if the term was of his own personal art vernacular (Google turned up nothing) as it was the last I ever heard anyone use it in a sentence. Art gap refers (so this professor proclaimed) to the distance between the artist’s intention and the viewer’s perception of a work of art.
“Art gap” is a tricky thing—if the “gap” is close, then your work is deemed “literal.” Too far, and the audience misses the point completely. What makes the alchemy of art gap so difficult to grasp is that it solely relies on the viewer. Being that (as viewers) we are all different, our mileages (or millimeters) will vary.
When you visit Gallery 31, think about how Artist in Residence Allison Uttley’s work affects you. Make note of what thoughts and memories race through your mind. Before you leave, read her proposal for the project and see how your art gap measures up.
Allison and Vince, discussing the finer points of metaphysical Mylar.
Last week, Vince Hazen, Head of the Academy Art Center at Linekona, and Shawn Eichman, Curator of Asian Art, visited Uttley and critiqued her work—one of the benefits of the residency. I sat in on the visits and found it fascinating to observe how Vince and Shawn digested and interpreted the work, and how they arrived at their critiques and suggestions. Sorry, I’m not going to go into what was said (they went deep), but I will say that the distance of perspective from a museum curator (Eichman) to that of an artist (Hazen) is pretty wide. Yet, their views were completely valid and very helpful to Allison; she has a lot to think over as she prepares for her thesis in April.
You have one more weekend to see Allison at work— her last day as Artist in Residence is Oct. 25. Drop by this Saturday and Sunday!
Yesterday, I popped in to see what Allison was up to. There were more balloons, the shapes and scale of them have gotten more diverse. A few touch both floor and ceiling simultaneously, which begins to toy with your sense of proportion. One balloon caught my eye.
“Hey, it’s Penelope!” I said.
“Who’s Penelope?” asked Allison.
“You know Penelope, our big bronze sculpture in Central Court.”
“hmm, I’ll have to go up there and take a look…”
Pareidolia is the phenomenon where something significant and profound is seen or heard in random and ambiguous sounds and sights. (Remember the Virgin Mary on a slice of toast? Pareidolia.)
Watching Allison’s work evolve in gallery 31, I can’t help but give each form a name, a personality, make them “real,” assign them as significant. These oddly shaped ballooned blobs do nothing but slowly sway back and forth. They make no noise, have no expression, but there is a life to them. They exist in the space, same as I, alone with my thoughts. It is not unlike riding the bus, only more quiet, more cool, and less stinky.
Check out Allison’s wonderland…three weekends left!
Gallery 31 Art Studio.
Saturdays 10am-4:30pm, Sundays 1-5pm
through Oct 18
There’s something bittersweet about balloons—they serve as fluffy milestones, marking times of achievement and worth, yet they also remind you that those moments are just that, and can unexpectedly pop, deflate or just float away. We live for moments, and in art it is often the moment of completion that measures its worth. For the artist, though, the brainstorm, the process, and the execution is equally important. It is more often than not, what keeps creative souls coming back for more.
Print and balloon maker, Allison Uttley is the first of four artists in residence this year here at the Academy. Funded by the Arthur and Mae Orvis Foundation, each AIR gets full use of the Museum Learning Center’s Gallery 31 and Art Studio for six weeks. The residency, which was conceived last June, is open to University of Hawaii–Mânoa art grad students and recent MFA recipients of the program. Unique to these islands, the artist in residence program offers a tremendous opportunity for fresh new talent to get their foot in the door of Hawai’i’s art scene.
Follow the signs and check out Allison Uttley as she creates balloons, er, floating sculptures in Gallery 31 Art Studio TONIGHT at ARTafterDARK. She will also be here every weekend through October 25.
In a corner of Artists of Hawai‘i 2009 is a video installation by David J. Merritt. It’s a neverending loop from Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 New Wave classic “Le Samouraï,” in which a heartbreakingly young and handsome Alain Delon is sitting in a car methodically going through a ring of like 60 keys to see which one fits the ignition. One, two, three, four, then it starts over. It is hypnotic, and the longer I watch, I can feel my anxiety mount. Like trying to get through the stack of papers on my desk, and by the end of the day it’s the same height. Called “Pendant” (scroll down to eighth row), the work is one of my favorites in the exhibition. It’s also one of the pieces that would be right at home in “The Generational: Younger Than Jesus,” the New Museum exhibition co-curated by Artists of Hawai’i juror Laura Hoptman (I was lucky enough to see the show last month). And as a matter of fact, Merritt will soon move to New York, where he’ll start grad school at NYU—he’ll be in studio arts. continue reading "David J. Merritt: The hypnotist"
“Whatevahs” by Lawrence Seward, who recently moved back to Hawai‘i from NYC with his wife, animator Laura Margulies, and two children. Now that the Flower Show is over, work on Artists of Hawai‘i is beginning. Invitations for the members-only opening on May 13 go out tomorrow. (It’s not too late to join if you’d like to attend.) The special Artists of Hawai‘i 2009 microsite launches the same day.
Honolulu artist Russell Sunabe, who also shares his mana‘o as an art professor at KCC, will receive the John Young Award at the opening reception of Artists of Hawai‘i on May 13. In the show will be his painting “Instinct,” which you may have seen at other (non-juried) exhibitions around town. It’s a bold, vigorous work portraying hunting dogs closing in on a wild boar. The opening reception is members only: Join to be part of the festivities! (Just $20 for students—that’s two measly cocktails in Waikiki.)
In a corner of 
“Whatevahs” by Lawrence Seward, who recently moved back to Hawai‘i from NYC with his wife, animator Laura Margulies, and two children. Now that the Flower Show is over, work on Artists of Hawai‘i is beginning. Invitations for the members-only opening on May 13 go out tomorrow. (It’s not too late to 
Honolulu artist Russell Sunabe, who also shares his mana‘o as an art professor at