Five artists with roots in UH Hilo printmaking program show their work at Honolulu Printmakers 91st Annual Juried Exhibition
“The Honolulu Printmakers exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for our students to exhibit with artists from all over the state,” says UH Hilo master printer Prof. Jon Goebel.
Printmaking talent nurtured at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo is well represented at the Honolulu Printmakers 91st Annual Juried Exhibition. Works by alumni, a current student, and a master printmaking professor are part of the prestigious exhibition that opened Jan. 13 and remains on view at UH Mānoa Art Gallery through Feb. 15, 2019.
UH Hilo alumni Madalyn Freedman and Katya Hutchinson, and current student Tiana Honda, have been mentored by Professor Jon Goebel, master printer and director of the UH Hilo printmaking program.
- See Work of UH Hilo’s master printmaker Jon Goebel, Feb. 2, 2015, UH Hilo Stories.
Goebel has a print in the show entitled, “Beacon,” a 20″ x 15” drypoint and aquatint print dated 2018. Reproductions and details about the rest of the group’s prints are found below.
“The Honolulu Printmakers exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for our students to exhibit with artists from all over the state,” says Goebel. “Even if students are not selected to exhibit, there is an important lesson to experience. You have to persist and consistently put yourself out there and try again without looking back.”
Honda and Hutchinson, in addition to the prestige of being included in the show, have already sold out their editions. “Their works are fabulous,” says Michael Marshall, professor of art and chair of the departments of art and performing arts at UH Hilo.
Also exhibiting in the show is UH Hilo alumna Margot Ray (Art, 2002), who is a thriving printmaker, book artist, and painter on Hawai‘i Island. Details about her selection for the current show are found below.
Goebel says the UH Hilo Department of Art has a rich history of involving students in professional development opportunities.
“Since the early 1980s, art students have played a major role in the production of the Pacific States series of exhibitions and residencies,” he says. “Students have worked with visiting artists, organized and curated exhibitions, received grants, and presented at professional conferences. These activities provide our students with important applied learning experiences and prepare them for careers in the arts.”
Madalyn Freedman
Freedman has two prints in the show: “Long Run,” a multiple plate etching with aquatint, 6″ X 8″, dated 2018 (see image at top of story); and “Grow Beneath,” an 11″ X 8 1/4″ piece, aquatint and etching with chine-collé, also dated 2018, which received an honorable mention award at the exhibit.
“I make images to reflect my surroundings, and they end up reflecting my thoughts and emotions,” she says in her artist’s statement for the show. “I enjoy telling stories. In stories, there is everything. In art, there are stories.”
Tiana Honda
Honda, currently a student of Goebel’s, has a print in the show entitled, “Traveling Cats,” an intaglio etching with aquatint and gold leaf, 10.3″ x 7.8″ dated 2018. The charming print is already sold out.
“This particular piece plays upon a whimsical theme, dealing with movement and fluidity as smooth as time,” says Honda in her artist’s statement. “The use of gold leaf draws inspiration from the Japanese artists of the Rinpa school that originated in the 17th century.”
Katya Hutchinson
Hutchinson recently graduated from UH Hilo last fall with a degree in art and is seeking graduate school this fall. Her print, “Saint Boyfriend,” a 15″ x 11 1/2” intaglio, screen print with embroidery thread, dated 2018, was selected for the exhibit.
“My work aims to provide a contrast between the classic and the graphic,” she says in her artist’s statement. “I utilize a variety of print mediums to produce classic forms, and explore the bonds of tone and contrast.”
Margot Ray
Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Ray graduated from UH Hilo with an art degree in 2002. She has grown a highly successful career in the arts shaped in part she says by her studies at UH Hilo.
“UH Hilo is a small school, it is quite diverse culturally, with students from throughout the Pacific as well as from the U.S. mainland,” says Ray when asked in 2015 about UH Hilo’s effect on her career. “There is also diversity in the age range of the student body, some entering right out of high school and others returning to school later in their life. All of these influences create a unique educational environment that influenced my art practice and subsequently my art career.”
- To learn more about Ray’s career, see UH Hilo alumna Margo Ray, local artist with a voice, UH Hilo Stories, Feb. 20, 2015.
Ray currently serves as exhibit coordinator for the Kahilu Theater Gallery in Waimea on the island of Hawai‘i.
A constant theme throughout Ray’s work is her images of water catchment tanks in Waimea. Her exhibited print in this year’s printmaking show, dated 2018, is entitled, “Containment Landscape #23—Mana Road.” The 14″ X 14″ piece is an intaglio print with inkjet print chine-collé.
“In my work I have established an iconic language inspired by the rural Hawaiian landscape, where the ‘wild west’ of American myth is here pushed to the edge of westward expansion,” she says in her artist’s statement for the show.
The show
The Annual Juried Honolulu Printmakers Exhibition is juried this year by Jeffrey Dell, professor of art at Texas State University, San Marcos, and is supported in part by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Hawai‘i State Legislature.
Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
