Mixing Art with Architecture

It’s easy to take public art for granted, but Honolulu is actually filled with great pieces of sculpture and painting, hidden in plain sight. The blue-green glass mosaic on the floor of the state Capitol, the happy-go-lucky concrete swimmers floating on the Civic Center parking lot grass, the tubular “Skygate” behind Honolulu Hale.

The city didn’t get its collection of creativity by accident; Hawaii was the first state to pass an Art in State Buildings Law, in 1967, designating one percent of the construction costs of new buildings for the acquisition of works of art.

A new exhibit at the Hawaii State Art Museum takes a look at how this process works, almost 40 years later—artists collaborating with architects to make the most of the new palette that is a new building.

Featured will be five commissioned works installed within the last year in some of Hawaii’s most prominent government buildings and campuses, by some of Hawaii’s most respected artists, including Satoru Abe, Carol Bennett and Tadashi Sato.

The exhibition opens September 3, but you’ve got until January 15 to check it out.