© 2024 Hawaiʻi Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
News and voices from Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Lana‘i, Moloka‘i and Kaua‘i.

2020 Through the Eyes of Artists

Viewpoints Gallery
Mastaba. Beth Cooper. alcohol ink, linoleum cut, resin on wood panel

Viewpoints Gallery has been part of the arts scene in Maui's upcountry town of Makawao for thirty years.

It’s run by artists—and known for colorful and diverse works.

HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports that hasn’t changed—even though the current show is about what we’ve been through in 2020.

Credit Viewpoints Gallery
Viewpoints Gallery exhibits and commissions work through their home base in Makawao, Upcountry Maui.

The whole Viewpoints Gallery is essentially one installation now, "2020--Through the Eyes of Artists" features works by more than 120 artists representing seven Hawaiian islands. Curator Joelle Perz says the gallery sent out 400 identical 12 by 12 inch panels with an open-ended assignment. 

 

"We told them, Please create a work of art. It can be anything, but it has to be of the present time."

 

The abundance of color and strength of some designs might surprise you.  Perz says the works form a mural of responses to fear, isolation...and self-discovery.

 

"The mural we have going on is that array of expressions, from looking at the sunset, feeling a lot of gratefulness for living in Hawai'i. At the same time being connected with the world."

 

Artists made their own panels too so there are over 400 pieces wrapping around walls in the gallery.

 

"We've put up the work and we've sold some so the mural over the whole year has been changing, kind of morphing into something different all the time. As the news has been different, you see the pandemic, and then you see all the politics, it comes up in the artwork." 

 

Asked to reflect on what the year was like, Maui painter Beth Marcil shares her thoughts.

 

"2020 definitely pressed my reset button, all the activities on my schedule came to a grinding halt. With that, surprisingly, came a sense of freedom unlike anything I've experienced in quite a while."

"I noticed that time became fluid. Digging in the dirt, planting seeds, food from our garden has been pure joy. In a time of roller coaster emotions we've collectively experienced around the world, to the great sigh of relief that came with slowing down, something began to shift. New  sprouts of awareness arose within me, along with curiosity and playfulness."

 

"This year has been many things to all of us. What a gift to witness it thorough each other's eyes."

 

See "2020 Through the Eyes of Artists'" in person at Viewpoints Gallery Makawao through January 8th, or online. The Gallery is open for private viewings or 11-5 Fridays and Saturdays.  Contact oliver@viewpointsgallerymaui.com

 

 

Noe Tanigawa covered art, culture and ideas for two decades at Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
Related Stories