2022 Master of Fine Arts Degree Candidate Public Defenses:
Nathan Talamantez: April 22, 4:00 PM HST
Meeting ID: 951 4976 4352 Link here Passcode: 829569
Exhibition Information:
Nathan Talamantez: Reflection, Sunday, April 17 – Thursday, April 28
Nathan Talamantez collects and alters vintage photos. Reflection delves into the interconnectedness of the past and the present moment to ask the viewer if photographs might be actual pieces of memory. This body of work challenges the binaries we continually construct and reconstruct between self and other, and between our own past and present selves. Such reconstruction is performed by contesting the division between the realm of memory and the realm of experience.
Nathan R. Talamantez (b. 1993, Texas) received his BFA in photography from The University of Texas at San Antonio, where he focused on darkroom and alternative process photography. He then joined the United States Navy. Attracted by photography’s power to preserve moments in time, he is drawn to vintage photographs, which he calls “lost memories.” His current work revolves around photographs that have already been taken, which he sees as a portal for thoughts of the past and for the current moment, where the present and past experience each other. Currently, he is active-duty military stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
Makenzie Davis: April 8, 2022, 4:00 PM HST
Meeting ID: 979 6004 0524 Link here Passcode: 696805
Exhibition Information:
Makenzie Davis: Deep Time, Sunday, April 3 – Thursday, April 14
Makenzie Davis’s Deep Time uses paint and handmade paper pulp to envision an environment where geologic deep time is observed in mythology, mo‘olelo, and memory. The installation consists of a monumental twenty-four-foot-long painting on paper that suggests landscapes. Five sculptural paper columns refer to both the notion of axis mundi, and contemporary phenomena like lava trees and urban utility poles. Each component emphasizes a geologic perspective that fosters a sense of deep time within the human experience.
Makenzie Davis (b. Lyons, Colorado) received her BFA from Colorado State University (2017). Previous exhibitions include Ekahi Elua (2022) and Soft Insides (2021), GRRIC Contemporary, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM), and the Drawing National Juried Exhibition (2020), Dallas Metro Arts Contemporary. Davis taught Introduction to Drawing at UHM as a graduate assistant.
Sadaf Naeem: March 30, 2022, 1:30 PM HST
Meeting ID: 728 578 8730 Link here Passcode: 7aeDi933
Exhibition Information:
Sadaf Naeem: Threads of Empathy, Knotting the Unseen, Sunday, March 20 – Thursday, March 31
Sadaf Naeem’s Threads of Empathy, Knotting the Unseen makes visible the connection between physical labor and women’s unseen emotional work. Utilizing cotton cords made by women in Punjab, Pakistan, she practices an intensive method of knotting and braiding that emerges from everyday acts like making hair braids or tying a knot to get dressed. The installation consists of three components entitled Knotted Bodies, Braided Body, and Unfolded. Together, they are a confrontation of childhood memories and a metaphor for healing.
Sadaf Naeem (b. Sahiwal, Pakistan) received her BFA degree from the National College of Arts (Lahore, Pakistan). She has presented solo exhibitions at GRRIC, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) (2021); O Art Space (Lahore, Pakistan) (2019); and Chawkandi Art Gallery (Karachi, Pakistan) (2017). Naeem produced an art installation at Alliance Française for the Karachi Biennale (2019). Her work was presented in the group exhibitions Euphonic Palettes, Nitanjali Art Gallery, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Mumbai, India; Lantern of the East, the 16th Pyeongtaek International Art Festival, Korea; and at Colombo Art Gallery, Sri Lanka; as well as an auction organized by the Scarsdale Foundation, New York. She is the recipient of the 2020 Award of Merit in the Memory of Ethel Portner in the group show Fiber Hawai‘i 2020 at Gallery ‘lolani, Hawai‘i; the East-West Center Foundation Scholarship (2020–2021); and the Shore Hodge Lipsher Memorial Award (UHM) (2020, 2021).
Helena Noordhoff: March 3, 2022, 3:00 PM HST
Meeting ID: 947 6738 9605 Link here Passcode: 180071
Exhibition Information:
Helena Noordhoff: Realphantasie, Sunday, February 27 – Thursday, March 10
Helena Noordhoff’s Realphantasie features frosted Mylar and acrylic ink monoprint inkblots, zines, and an original audio score. Perceptions of inkblots vary among individuals; in order for the viewer to find a connection or a moment beyond the surface, they engage with the abstract images to recognize images and shapes. The zines, consisting of collections of drawings and writings, summon further consideration from the viewer. An audio composition imagines the sounds of anxiety and its fluctuations. Collectively, these works ask the viewer to engage with, perceive, and contemplate the unconscious mind and mental health, thus inviting the development of empathy.
Helena Noordhoff (b. Honolulu, Hawai‘i) earned a BFA in printmaking at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) (2018). Solo exhibitions include Brue Bar (2019) and GRRIC, UHM (2021). Her work was included in the group exhibitions CONTACT, Honolulu Museum of Art School (HMoAS) (2016, 2018), and the Annual Honolulu Printmakers Exhibitions, HMoAS (2016, 2018), The Art Gallery, UHM (2019), Arts & Letters Nu‘uanu and Honolulu Printmakers Studio (2021).She currently teaches screenprinting at the Department of Art & Art History, UHM, as a graduate assistant.
Jake Everett: February 18, 2022, 1:30 PM HST
Meeting ID: 939 2505 4687 Link here Passcode: 581869
Exhibition Information:
Jake Everett: Liminal Matter, Sunday, February 13 – Thursday, February 24
Jake Everett's Liminal Matter investigates the industrial landscape as a permanent state of liminality. Broken down into three main bodies—The Doors of Separation, The Limen, and The Vehicles of Initiation—the exhibition is physically characterized by discarded matter that facilitates a rite of passage for the material, the artist, and the viewer.
The artist’s studio overlooks a loading dock, an environment in flux where materials come and go. The exhibition interprets discarded material and objects as liminal matter; no longer serving their previous existence as commodities, they possess an ambiguous identity that hovers between form and intended function.
First coined by Arnold van Gennep, the term liminality is used to describe the time in which people are on the threshold of entering a new phase in their life, having left the previous one behind. The limen, said to act as a membrane, holds the tension between one space or condition and another. It is in these transitional moments that transformation can
Jake Everett (b. 1991, Colorado Front Range) received his BFA in painting from Colorado State University where he was a recipient of the Tracie Noah Memorial Scholarship. Inspired by the paradoxical relationship between nature and culture, Everett gathers discarded objects, assembling them into three dimensional paintings. His walks around Honolulu have led him to view discarded objects as cultural relics embodied with the spirits of our natural histories. Recently, his work was presented in Los Angeles, California, in Collecting Community History Initiative: The West During COVID-19 and Collecting Community History Initiative: Black Lives Matter Protests in the West, Autry Museum of the American West, as well as the international exhibition, Art in the Time of Corona, Dab Art Co.
Forrest Leonard: February 4, 2022, 1:30 PM HST
Meeting ID: 932 0759 8802 Link here Passcode: 765198
Exhibition Information:
Forrest Leonard: Care Packaging, Sunday, January 30 – Thursday, February 10
Forrest Leonard’s Care Packaging presents a ceramic artist’s perspective on waste streams as a resource, rather than a source of pollution. Leonard focuses on Styrofoam, which despite being recyclable occupies 30% of landfills worldwide. In Hawai‘i, Styrofoam packaging waste increased with online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, a sign that the climate crisis continues in spite of lockdowns. Rather than dwell on these negative associations, Leonard reuses the Styrofoam packaging as readymade molds for casting ceramic forms. Utilizing recycled clay and found colorants, he recasts the products the Styrofoam once carried, and adapts them as functional and sculptural ceramics.
Forrest Leonard (b. 1994) is a ceramic artist raised in Kailua, O‘ahu, who utilizes found forms for making functional and sculptural ceramics. He completed his BFA in ceramics and sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2015. Since 2010, Leonard has received numerous awards during various exhibitions in Hawai‘i, Chicago and Portland. He was also awarded John Young scholarships upon enrolling at SAIC (2012) and for his MFA in ceramics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) (2022). Leonard has worked and volunteered extensively within the O‘ahu art community, primarily as an installation technician and as the treasurer for the Clay Club at UHM. Recent exhibitions include Post Package, GRRIC Contemporary (2021) and Hawai‘i Craftsmen Annual Juried Exhibition, Downtown Arts Center (2020).
Sponsors
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Department of Art & Art History and College of Arts & Humanities; Halekulani Hotel – Hospitality Sponsor for the Arts at UH Mānoa; and anonymous donors.
Gallery hours, admission, parking:
Sunday – Thursday 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Closed Fridays & Saturdays; Feb. 21, Presidents’ Day; Mar. 14 – 18, Spring break; Mar. 25, Prince Kuhio Day; Apr. 15, Good Friday; Apr. 17, Easter.
Please note due to COVID-19 these exhibitions are viewable through the gallery windows only.
Free admission. Donations are appreciated.
Parking fees may apply during weekdays. Parking is free on Sundays
Directions
Information and dates are subject to change.
For more information please contact Sharon Tasaka at 808.956.8364 and gallery@hawaii.edu