Schaefer Portrait Challenge / From the first imprinting of infancy to the constancy of long-term intimacy, interacting with someone (even oneself) face-to-face remains one of the most immediate and complex acts of human communication.

Portraits–those works of art that mediate the face-to-face relationship–create a meeting space that we can revisit again and again, a space of literal representation with emotional and psychological overtones. The compelling nature of portraiture has been the focus of the triennial Schaefer Portrait Challenge, begun on Maui in 2003 and now, in its third cycle, shown on Oahu for the first time.

Initially, the exhibition adhered to rather conservative standards, limited in media and requiring that the subject of the portrait be a “person of distinction”–known and noteworthy in the Islands. Now media range from traditional oil painting to drawing, mixed media and sculpture and, perhaps most importantly, the requirements placed on choice of subjects have been lifted. The exhibition, now more egalitarian in nature, holds a collective mirror up to our diverse island community and serves as a reminder that there is something worth noting and depicting in each life, any life, even as we come to know the various roles each person plays–child, parent, spouse, lover, teacher, farmer, artist, scholar, visionary, veteran.

One benefit of the new format is the greater number of artists’ self-portraits–always a compelling subcategory of portraiture–that are among the most interesting works on view. Beyond the simple convenience of always having a model ready at hand, artists may do some soul-searching or a reality check in the process of creating a persona with which to face the world. Jay Wilson’s “Weaver,” (pictured at right) is a mixed-media work combining drawing, photography and digital imagery. It sets a clean and elegant line drawing into the context of the geometric patterning of the tapestries for which the artist is known. Howard Lapp’s “Studies for the Schaefer” (three oil studies in color for a large portrait in gray) reveal the artist’s ability to read both surface and structure of the face and head, and translate them into hard-edged sections that hint at Lapp’s interest in woodblock printmaking. Rich Hevner’s “Marriage on Paper, Looking for a Sonnet”–a large mixed-media drawing on paper that won the substantial Juror’s Prize–is a double portrait (artist and wife/muse) that filters the lens of likeness through the artist’s very distinctive drawing style.

Also of note are a number of works that seem liberated by the more inclusive guidelines for media, from Karen Mortensen’s full-length study constructed of painted screening, through which can be seen a second face, to Bob Getzen’s wood inlay study of Rick Rutiz, a fellow woodworker.

The use of specific materials to reinforce facets of identity is also evident in works as diverse as Charlie Lyon’s “Timing” (a full-length study of master surfboard shaper Bob “Ole” Olson, painted on a surfboard) and fiber artist Madeleine Soder’s work, in which she has burned tiny holes in silk organza that coalesce into a self-portrait.

This is not to say that portraits created along more classic guidelines don’t hold their own. What is interesting in many of these works is the choice made by the artist about how to frame his or her subject. Norm Graffam’s oil study of “Elaine” isolates the figure in a minimal but luminous space, focusing our attention both on her deeply-shadowed face and on the tautness of her pose. On the other hand, Mike Carroll’s study of Lanai resident Alberta De Jetley places her in the lush setting of her farm, red T-shirt and red earth vibrating against the greens of her camouflage pants and the foliage of her crops. From Kauai to Hawaii, this is who we are.