Eduardo “Eddie” Joaquin was born in Manila, raised in Hawaii, graduated from Kaiser High School, and continued his education at Kapiolani Community College (KCC). Joaquin was planning to get a degree in graphic design but discovered while taking a required oil-painting class that that was what he really wanted to study. One of Joaquin’s professors helped him pursue his new interest in oil painting; Joaquin received a John Young Scholarship in the Arts for the 2019-2020 academic year and began working at Koa Gallery, an exhibition space on the KCC campus, earlier this year.

When COVID-19 precautions required the gallery to close, Joaquin, 22, decided to present five of his paintings installed as a mini exhibition in one of the rooms of the gallery. The exhibition can be viewed on the gallery’s Facebook page. Entitled “re-,” the exhibition is described by Koa Gallery management as “an exercise in exhibition-making and remote collaboration.”

Joaquin built a 1:12 scale model of the gallery and then re-scaled his paintings for display in it. For instance, a painting titled “bedroom pop” which is 6-1/2 inches by 10 inches, was re-scaled to look like it is 5-1/2 feet by 8 feet. A painting titled “quiet ­kuli‘ou‘ou” that is 8-1/2 inches by 11 inches, is shown on an adjoining wall in the same view of Joaquin’s exhibition re-scaled at 1-1/2 feet by 2 feet.

Joaquin’s model gallery is still currently on the floor in one of the rooms of the life-size gallery, which remains closed. For more information, visit facebook.com/koaartgallery.

How did you put “re-” together?

We were initially trying to do a student exhibit, so this is in lieu of having to cancel that. We were thinking of a way to exercise remote communication and trying to do something within the restrictions of the quarantine, and so we tried to think of a way in which we could work outside the constraints of what a normal exhibit would be like. This gave us the option to put whatever we want (in the exhibit) because it’s a scale model. It’s kind of an interesting exercise in remote communication, in having to communicate through the quarantine, and what you can do within those restrictions — and we wanted to bring something lighthearted to the community while doing that.

Why did you decide to resize your artwork?

I’d done a series of paintings all within the quarantine (period) and they were all consistently sized 8-1/2 by 11 and representing the typical kind of A4 paper size that you would have around the house because of the limitations (of stay-at-home). Because they were the same size we thought a way to approach it would be to bring them out of that consistent size. Then, judging by each piece, we thought of a way to arrange them according to the gallery and what each piece ­represented. It was really interesting to think about how scale and size can really influence the work.

What have you been doing since the exhibition went up?

Working primarily on commissions through social media. That’s been keeping me busy. I’m looking forward to getting back to work at the Koa Gallery and setting up a couple of new exhibitions that are very exciting.

Are the original paintings you did for “re-” available for sale?

Yes, I’m setting up a website, but if people want to see the paintings in greater detail they can contact me through social media at @eduardead on Instagram.

What’s the first thing you want to do when the stay-at-home order is over?

Go to the Honolulu Museum of Art and check out the “30 Americans” show.