First Hawaiian Center (FHC) art gallery will be featuring work of local artists Kamran Samimi, Kalani Largusa, and Lonny Tomono from August 21 to December 1.
Kamran Samimi approaches his material and subject matter with both devotion and dynamism, exploring natural ephemera such as stones, wood, pigment, and land. His marks and gestures reflect upon his life in awe of nature’s many forms: tidal waves, stone formations, sunrise versus sunset, and rainfall, prompting consideration of how a single line or cut may contain multitudes, contradictions, and harmonious elements such as the duality of persistence and temporality. Samimi grew up in rural Hamakua on Hawaii Island to parents of Iranian and Norwegian ancestry. He has been exhibiting art since 2008, and has had solo exhibitions at The Sharjah Art Museum in United Arab Emirates, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design. He has also shown at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, PA., and Tokyo Midtown in Tokyo, Japan, along with many other venues around the globe. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking and a Master of Fine Arts in print media and sculpture from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Kalani Largusa approaches painting as an ongoing investigation into current day mark-making, time, and the dynamic, interconnected occurrences of himself, ourselves, and our broader world. Closer observations of his artwork may bring to mind questions about texture and layering as well as apparent rhythms and disrupted patterns. Largusa is a local Hawaii artist raised in Kapahi, Kauai. He divides his time between painting on his home island and working out of his studio on Oahu. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Hawaii and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting studio practice from the School of Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). He currently holds a position with the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus, as a lecturer in the Drawing and Painting department.
Lonny Tomono bridges craft and sculpture, Asian and Western elements, and the practical with the conceptual in his striking artwork. He studied fine arts at the University of Hawaii and sculpture at San Francisco State University and San Jose State University, then moved on to working with Japanese temple carpenter Makoto Imai at the Green Gulch Zen Center in Marin County. Energized and inspired by his work with Imai, Tomono relocated to Japan and served a five-year apprenticeship with Imai’s own teacher, Seichiro Kitamura, a fifth-generation temple builder in Kyoto. Each step of his journey has served to inform Tomono’s profound and elegant sense of artistry, form and function. Tomono resides on Hawaii Island.
First Hawaiian Center art gallery reopened in March 2022 to support local artists while making their work more accessible to the people of Hawaii. The premier installation for the reopening featured iconic Hawaii sculptor and painter Satoru Abe. There will be a total of seven installations running through spring 2024.
The art gallery is free to the public and is open during banking hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
The installations are curated by Eclectix Design Inc. in partnership with First Hawaiian Bank. All pieces displayed in the gallery, with the exception of artwork pulled from First Hawaiian Bank’s private collection, will be available for purchase. Follow FHB on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the most up-to-date information and schedule.
