Announcing the Hui's 2010 Solo Artists

The purpose of the Hui No‘eau exhibition program is to cultivate in the public a fuller appreciation of and interest in art by promoting cultural exchange, spurring dialogue, enhancing awareness of and providing access to the visual arts; ultimately creating a space for community arts.

The Solo Artist Exhibition stands out as one of the only of its kind in the state of Hawai‘i, providing artists the unique opportunity to be intricately involved in all facets of planning and installation. The exposure this opportunity provides for the artists has proven to be invaluable and has been instrumental in furthering the careers and artistic growth of those selected by the Hui’s highly respected roster of exhibition committee members.

As an organization dedicated to enabling community access to the broad range of benefits offered by the visual arts, we consistently seek individuals that can handle the challenge of translating complex ideas into imagery, thus allowing our constituency to learn, question or become inspired to create in their own way. The Solo Artist Exhibition is vital to the Hui’s exhibition program in its ability to tell a story about the participating artists, the way they work and providing access to them to gain a critical perspective about how and why this new body of work came to be.

This year, we proudly present Eli Baxter and Jaisy Hanlon as our featured artists.

Baxter’s site-specific installation will incorporate sculpture that is part of an on-going body of work that combines themes of transformation, obsession, labor, reproduction, and fertility while exploring a dialogue with space and the relationship between the inside and outside. “I want the viewer to become aware of not only the artwork, but the space that contains it (and his/her movement within it), so that this becomes an element as well to his/her experience,” says the artist, “The work itself is both highly suggestive of organic plant life or foliage, yet at the same time, it has a very industrial, man-made fetishistic quality. These elements and ideas tie into my on-going interest in the interaction and interrelation between nature and human nature, and feels appropriate for the Hui No`eau as an art center that that has a complex, varied history.”

Hanlon’s new body of work will explore a nature that has been slightly mediated by fantasy- imaginary creatures floating in surreal environments that reference reality only in their singular parts- and expand her ideas from her traditional 2D format into a more sculptural format. With foci including Audobon etchings, plant armatures, an open air terrarium and spider web sculpture, her resulting Wunderkrammer, (or “cabinet room”), will pay homage to the relationship between history and nature. “My intent is to create work that is a hybrid of natural history specimen and contemporary sculpture,” states Hanlon, “I believe that artists have a responsibility not only to surprise but to educate- it is my hope that I can achieve both with this body of work.”

To learn more about the Hui’s Solo Artist Exhibition and read about past artists, refer to our past entries: Artist Announcement & Artist Interview.

The 2010 Solo Artist Exhibition will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 am – 4 pm in the Hui’s main hose September 24th - November 10th, 2010.

Eli Baxter

Jaisy Hanlon