2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition open to public through December

Hosted by the art department at UH Hilo, the exhibition is one of the most prestigious juried printmaking shows in the country.

Two images. 1) Artist Sara Smelser in her studio working on a print. 2) An excerpt of her winning print in soft browns and grays, like a net and barbed wire and stones.
The first place award at the 2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition held at UH Hilo goes to Sarah Smelser with her print, Defying the Laws XII (excerpt as background image above). Smelser’s print was chosen out of 635 entries. (Courtesy images from Sarah Smelser; Illustration by UH Hilo Stories)

By Susan Enright.

The 2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition is currently on display at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Hosted by the university’s Department of Art, the exhibit, which opened on Nov. 1, is free and open to the public through Dec. 31. Hours are Monday through Friday (except holidays), 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., on the third floor of the Campus Center. There are also a few pieces located in the UH Hilo Department of Art foyer on the Hawaiʻi Community College campus at MC-395.

Jon Goebel pictured with background of the ocean.
Jon Goebel

“This entire display includes a wonderful range of hand-made prints,” says master printmaker Jon Goebel, a UH Hilo associate professor of art, chair of the department, and lead organizer of the print exhibit. “The timing couldn’t be better to consider gifts for friends and family.”

This year’s selection of 56 artworks was juried last month by contemporary artist Laura Berman. While on campus, Berman, a professor at the Kansas City Art Institute where she has taught printmaking and book arts since 2002, gave a public lecture and held a workshop to make a print edition with students.

Group of students with Lara Berman in the printmaking studio.
Artist Lara Berman (center front) with participants in a printmaking workshop the artist gave while visiting UH Hilo to jury an annual print exhibition. (Photos courtesy Dept. of Art/UH Hilo)

The UH Hilo-based contemporary printmaking exhibition has shown selected artists’ works from many areas of the continent for over 40 years, providing a cultural and learning resource for UH Hilo students and the local community.

The exhibition was established at UH Hilo in 1982 by the late Wayne Miyamoto, a professor of art at UH Hilo. It is open to all artists 18 years or older presently residing anywhere on the North American continent, its islands, and outlying U.S. territories.

The 2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition

This year there was a total of 635 entries from 42 states in the U.S., as well as Canada, and Mexico. Berman selected 56 works for the exhibition.

The first place award goes to Sarah Smelser with her print, Defying the Laws XII. With the first place award comes an artist residency at UH Hilo to cover travel, lodging, per diem, and honorarium.

A print in browns, off whites, grays and blues. Like line drawings of netting, and barbed wire, blues of the ocean, gray rock.
The first place award at the 2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition goes to Sarah Smelser with her print, Defying the Laws XII. (Courtesy image)

A complete list of honorable mentions and all artists’ works juried into the exhibition an be found on the 2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition website.

“Jurying this exhibition was a refreshing and enlivening experience,” says Berman in her juror’s statement. “The selected works are resolute in their place within the thriving field of contemporary printmaking. Talented artists abound in this field and the exhibition could easily have included exquisitely-made prints three times over.”

Emergent themes in this selection of work center on humanness, the relationship of humans to the earth, and of humans to technology.

“The works in this collection thoughtfully point to unobvious connections within the topic of the built environment,” says Berman. “Often an element of playfulness is balanced with introspection, and the collective narrative in these works describes a lack of solid ground. Though earth-centric, ambiguous spaces abound. The images speak of flying, of being underground, or conversely, built upwards into the sky. Alongside these narrative infrastructures, the grounded earth is balanced with temporal aspects of light. Overall, and on an unequivocally human level, these works acknowledge challenge while also providing a sense of hope.”

The framing is rectangular white with a black brder, with a dark circular print at the center of a swirling but spiky intricate design.
Andrew Mullally’s print Evening Sun is one of six that received honorable mention at the 2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition. (Courtesy image)

Curating exhibit is hands-on learning experience for UH Hilo art students

Goebel says numerous art students are always involved in the curatorial aspects of producing exhibitions in conjunction with the art department’s gallery schedule. Those involved experience the process of artwork intake, matting and framing, exhibition installation, and the packing and shipping and return of artworks to artists thousands of miles away.

“These activities enrich the community, while also providing our students at UH Hilo with skills that will greatly contribute to their careers as artists,” says Goebel.

The 2024 Pacific States Biennial North American Juried Print Exhibition was facilitated through the art department’s gallery management course, an applied learning opportunity to connect student experience with hands-on exhibition curation taught by Professor of Art Michael Marshall.


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.

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