This new, multi-site, contemporary visual arts festival will activate various locations within the city of Honolulu until 8 May, 2017. Entitled, ‘Middle of Now’ the focus is to highlight the creative practices in our Pacific neighborhood. Curatorial Director Fumio Nanjo and Curator Ngahiraka Mason have invited Vernon Ah Kee, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan and Ken + Julia Yonetani from Australia as well as a strong contingent of New Zealand artists including Brett Graham, Yuki Kihara, Fiona Pardington, Lisa Reihana, Greg Semu and John Vea to participate.
A statement on the curatorial theme by Nanjo and Mason explains:
‘The inaugural Honolulu Biennial 2017 (HB2017) showcases the diversity of ideas, art, and culture from the people who live today throughout the places connected by the Pacific Ocean. It will include contemporary art from Hawaiʻi, the Pacific Islands, Asia, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. By exhibiting the work of artists from all around this vast region, Honolulu Biennial 2017 shines a spotlight on the collective artistic vision from this important and dynamic Pacific neighborhood.’
Ken + Julia Yonetani, Crystal Palace: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nuclear Nations (Exhibition View), Singapore Biennale © Yonetani, Ken & Julia Courtesy the artists and Mizuma Art Gallery, Singapore
Sama Alshaibi, Wasl (Union), video stills, from the project Silsila, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Ayyam Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Beatrice Glow, Rhunhattan Tearoom, 2015, acrylic and decal collage on ceramics, ink on paper, terracotta infused with scents of colonial commerce, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist
