EXHIBITION
FOCUS
January 19 – February 16, 2025
The Art Gallery, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM), Art Building
The Art Gallery at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is proud to present FOCUS.
The collective Photography? End? consists of seven contemporary Japanese artists whose respective avenues of work look at the potentiality of photography in a rapidly evolving digital age. With a diverse range of approaches in material innovation and conceptual direction, their work asserts that there are many ways to arrive at an image, whether through intention, subversion, chance, experimentation, or research. With each member having a distinct voice, the space between their works provokes conversation, reminding us that this field harbors yet undiscovered possibility.
Featuring:
Yuji Hamada, Ken Kitano, Miki Nitadori, Yuki Onodera, Naruki Oshima, Risaku Suzuki, and Kazuyoshi Usui
Jonathan Yukio Clark was born on Maui in 1987. He received an MFA in studio art from New York University and a BFA in painting with a second major in East Asian studies from Washington University in St. Louis, in addition to time spent as a research student in printmaking at Kyoto Seika University. He is the curator of FOCUS and Gallery Director at Maui Arts & Cultural Center, where he oversees the Schaefer International Gallery’s exhibits programs, ranging from local to international in scope. He serves on the board of Hawai‘i Museums Association as Vice President.
Ken Kitano was born in Tokyo in 1968. He graduated from the College of Industrial Technology at Nihon University in Chiba in 1991, and currently lives and works in Tokyo as Professor of Photography at Zokei University. He won the Society of Photography Award in 2004 and the Newcomer’s Award from the Photographic Society of Japan in 2007. In 2012, he was a recipient of a fellowship to study in the United States through the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Fund, residing in the U.S. for one year. As a conceptual photographer, Kitano’s landscapes and portraits of contemporary Japan challenge what he perceives as globalization’s homogenization of time and space.
Organization
Thank you to the Curator of the exhibition, Jonathan Yukio Clark, Director of Schaefer International Gallery, Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Thanks to the staff of the University Galleries and the John Young Museum of Art, Professor Debra Drexler, Interim Director of the Galleries and Museums. Sheika Alghezawi, Assistant Director, Mia Zheng, Curatorial Graduate Assistant, and Dylan Gomez, Installation Graduate Assistant.
Opening Reception
Date: January 19, 2025, 2:00-4:00 pm
Location: Art Building
Exhibition Walkthrough
Location: The Art Gallery, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM)
Date: February 16, 2025, Sunday 1:00 pm
Sponsors
The Art Gallery is supported by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Department of Art + Art History and College of Arts, Languages & Letters; the Office of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity, SEED IDEAS Grant for their support of the exhibition, and the Admiral Residency in Contemporary Pacific Art for support of teaching residencies to accompany the exhibition. The Halekulani Hotel– Hospitality Sponsor for the Arts at UH Mānoa, the Cooke Foundation, the Beverly Willis Foundation, and the Michael J. Marks Foundation.
THE ART GALLERY is located at 2535 McCarthy Mall, Rm 141, Honolulu, HI 96822.
Gallery hours and admission
Tuesday – Friday & Sunday 12 – 4 p.m.
Closed Saturdays, Mondays, spring break (March 17-22), and state holidays.
Free admission. Donations are appreciated.
Parking fees may apply during weekdays. Parking is free on Sundays
For more information please contact Sheika Alghezawi at 808.956.8364 and gallery@hawaii.edu