Hawaii artists are beginning to celebrate the easing of the pandemic with a small-scale “soft” return of First Friday.
At least three galleries in Chinatown plan to hold special events this Friday, offering art lovers the chance to meet local creatives and see what they produced during this period of isolation. They’ll all be following safety protocols, allowing limited numbers of guests inside at one time and expecting them to stay in small groups that will stay distant from one another. The galleries will be open at 5 p.m.
The Arts at Marks Garage, at 1159 Nuuanu Ave., already celebrated First Friday earlier this month with the exhibition “Lasting Impressions.” Kanoe Reece, who manages the arts collective, said about 200 people came to the event, with about 25 people allowed inside a time.
“It never actually got too crowded,” she said. “There was a small bit of a line at the beginning and then it was nice. People were conscious of each other. It wasn’t like a crazy First Friday, where it’s just wall-to-wall people.”
She said it was more like the original First Fridays, “more arty than party.” “It was great, because that’s how it originally started, focusing on the art,” she said.
On Friday, the Arts at Marks will host the opening of “Restore our Earth,” an exhibition devoted to the environment. “We’re doing a whole month for Earth Day,” Reece said, adding that eight artists are expected to be on hand to discuss their work. “We felt it was time to recognize a little bit more of the earth and be more rejuvenating, since everyone’s been in the dumps for so long.”
At the Downtown Art Center, on the second floor of the Chinatown Gateway Plaza at 1041 Nuuanu Ave., the Hawai‘i Watercolor Society will be opening its first live exhibition since 2019. About 70 paintings from approximately 35 artists will be in the show, which was juried by prize-winning
West Virginia artist Laurie Goldstein-Warren. Wood creations from Honolulu Woodturners will also be
on display.
During the pandemic the society held virtual shows, but watercolor society president Sharon Billingsley said seeing art in the gallery will be much more fulfilling. “On a screen, you can see the color, you can see the line,” she said. “But there’s something about standing in front of a painting that somebody put their energy into. It kind of bounces back.”
She said the Downtown Arts Center, which opened in the fall, will be a safe space to view art. “It’s lovely and spacious,” she said. “People can be inside and still have plenty of distance and not be on top of each other. It’s the perfect gallery space for the first show coming out of COVID.”
At the former the Pegge Hopper Gallery space at 1164 Nuuanu Ave., a new art center headed by Maile Meyer of Na Mea Hawai‘i has sprung up. Meyer renamed the space the Arts &Letters Building and divided it among four arts-oriented entities: a branch of her Native Books store, the art and business hub WaiWai Collective, a print shop displaying Hopper’s works and a display space called the Arts &Letters gallery.
On Friday, the gallery
will open an exhibition of the works of Mayumi Oda, an artist and activist from Hawaii island. Oda has exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and has been called the “Matisse of Japan.” “She is a modern Buddhist revolutionary,” Meyer said.
(At 1 p.m. Saturday, Oda will be on hand to sign her new book “Sarasvati’s Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda” at Na Mea Hawai‘i at Ward Centre; she will appear again at 1 p.m. April 4 at Arts &Letters gallery.)
Meyer is happy to see First Friday return to its roots as an arts-focused event, remembering how First Friday at times degenerated into a party scene.
“We’re not trying to throw a party, we’re trying to see really interesting ideas that inspire us,” she said. “We actually really love art. We love people looking and thinking about complex issues with art as a backdrop.”
