This New Exhibit is Putting Art on the Menu at Artizen by MW

A new exhibit aims to bring more people, and money, to the Hawai‘i State Art Museum.

Photo: Composition #1 by Satoru Abe

For more than a year, Artizen by MW has steadily lured downtown workers on their lunch breaks into the Hawai‘i State Art Museum’s first-floor café, yet the upstairs floor of the building remains undiscovered by many. The Friends of HiSAM, the museum’s nonprofit support group, wants to change that with a new series of exhibits at Artizen highlighting artists in the museum’s collection.

Four times a year, the Friends will organize a show pairing a legendary local artist with an exceptional up-and-comer. The current show, Across Generations, features sculptures by Satoru Abe and paintings by Hamilton Kobayashi and Kainoa Gruspe. “Kainoa is the future,” says Abe, 90, who was born 70 years before Gruspe and still works in his studio every day. Each piece of art will be for sale, with proceeds benefiting the museum. The hope is that people will discover an artist they love and venture upstairs to see what else in in HiSAM’s collection. The museum is free!

Across Generations is on view through Feb. 24. The next exhibit opens March 3.

This article appears in the February 2017 issue of HONOLULU Magazine.