The 2019 “Jan Ken Po” art exhibit, juried by UH Hilo alumna Margo Ray, opens at Wailoa Center
The “Jan Ken Po” collection also includes work by several students and recent graduates of the UH Hilo art program. In conjunction with the exhibit, jurist Margot Ray’s own artwork is on display at Wailoa’s Fountain Gallery with a collection of her prints and mixed media works on canvas.
The juror for this year’s “Jan Ken Po” annual printmaking exhibition at Wailoa Center in Hilo is University of Hawai‘i at Hilo alumna Margo Ray. Ray graduated from the UH Hilo art program in 2002 and then went on to earn her master of fine arts from Concordia University in Montréal. She is a professional artist as well as the exhibition coordinator for the galleries at the Kahilu Theatre in Kamuela on Hawai‘i Island.
“Jan Ken Po” is a statewide juried print exhibit sponsored annually by the Hawai‘i Island Art Alliance. Also part of this year’s show are prints on loan from a collection of the UH Hilo art department. Artworks by several current students and recent graduates are also included in the show.
“The University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Print and Drawing Collection samples nearly three decades of purchase awards from national and international juried exhibitions organized by the art department program,” says Michael Marshall, art professor at UH Hilo. “The collection also includes examples of work by former students and graduates of the UH Hilo art program.”
Marshall says the collection provides ongoing support for art instruction, and “facilitates through many fine archived examples, the boundless possibility of visual expression.”
He adds, “We are pleased to share these works in support of the 2019 Jun Ken Po exhibition at the Wailoa Center.”
Margo Ray
Meanwhile, in conjunction with the exhibit, Ray’s own artwork is on display at Wailoa’s Fountain Gallery with a collection of her prints and mixed media works on canvas (see one her works at the top of this story).
Ray was raised on Hawai‘i Island. She is a visual artist who works in printmaking, collage, and installation. She’s an international traveler, exposing herself to art making practices throughout the world. Her works have been exhibited at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA, The Honolulu Museum of Art at First Hawaiian Center in Honolulu, the Parisian Laundry in Montréal in Canada’s Québec province, and most recently at The Lancaster Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, Calif., among many others.
“In jurying Jan Ken Po: State Wide Juried Print Exhibition, I looked for entries that are strong in both content and craft and work that utilizes the chosen method of print to convey both an idea and a feeling,” Ray says.
Exhibit info
All exhibits will be on display from Oct. 4-24, with a reception for the artists from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4. The event is free and open to the public. The Wailoa Center is located at 200 Piopio St. in Hilo, and is free and open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
For additional information, call 933-0416 or email wailoa@yahoo.com.
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UH Hilo alumna Margo Ray, local artist with a voice “counter to the fiction of paradise”
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.
