Honolulu Weekly

Existential Pilgrims / For some artists, art-making is about way-finding, a means of navigating a path through the complexities of life. The paths of four such artists converge in the exhibition Existential Pilgrims, now current at the Academy Art Center Gallery at Linekona. As the artists themselves suggest, “The Pilgrims’ common thread is their somewhat old fashioned romantic belief that art is a noble path, a spiritual journey that all human beings have shared…” The artists also share a common belief that, as personal as making art can be, it also provides a means of connection to the larger human community and the life-making concerns–Who am I? Where am I going? What is my place in the world?–with which it is engaged.

One way to chart a path in the world is to pay attention to its particular and changing reality–to document various sitings as a way to position oneself. Keiko Bonk’s paintings exemplify this approach, anchoring perception in phenomena of the natural world. Bonk, raised on the island of Hawai`i, is a veteran of sociopolitical activism, island-style. Though working as far afield as a series of studies of “Afghan Poppies,” Bonk is at her best when working closer to home, where her passion for strong connections to place is evident in a series of small studies, some of which, like “Waikiki Doves” and “Too Little Of” translate gracefully into larger-scale paintings.

Something of that same perspective is evident in the work of Duane Preble, who has probably single-handedly turned more minds on to art than any other teacher. Now retired from UH-Manoa, Preble’s work as a painter is testament to a persistent quest for visual experience. That experience is informed primarily by a sense of realism–from broad panoramas such as “Pali View” and “Wailuku and West Maui Mountains,” to smaller, more intimate studies like “Hillside Forest #1” and “Manoa Stream.” Preble’s arthistorical grounding certainly informs more abstract works like the enigmatic “Voyagers” and the darkly luminous “Aerial View.”

The work of Noe Tanigawa–she of the mellifluous voice of KHPR’s arts and culture coverage–takes a very different approach in celebrating the sensory pleasures of existence in a series of works that focus on color, texture and organic pattern. To this end, Tanigawa uses media with distinctly sensual qualities. The series of “Moko Studies,” though black-and-white, are done in charcoal on vellum, resulting in a rich, velvety quality. Most of Tanigawa’s work is done in encaustic, in which pigments are combined with a wax medium to create a heightened density and depth of color. What is unique in her use of encaustic is a sculptural approach in which the waxy layer is incised and carved to create a dimensional surface.

Painter Russell Sunabe’s vision is the most angst-laden, as he muses, “…in the post-post world, after the dust clears, in the vast, changed landscape, the wanderer travels…” and creates a minimalist landscape in which few markers, save for scattered bones, are offered to those–a talismanic black boar among them–in transit. Sunabe, who teaches at Kapi`olani Community College, has created a compelling visual equivalent to this combination of stasis and flux, moving between forms rendered in a more realist manner and fields of restless, gestural painting. The juxtaposition suggests moments of clarity within the more uncertain flows of life-time.