Who is this person who visits the Honolulu Academy of Arts? While the Academy forges ahead with a marketing survey, Artist in Residence Elizabeth Curtis is identifying them in a different way. If you visit her blog, you’ll find an eclectic cache of images. These images are not just snapshots of someone’s mother/father/sister/brother at the art museum. They stand as social commentary, and attempt to raise questions about one’s perceived identity.  We often think of photographic portraiture as two-dimensional bottles of nostalgia; a way to capture and hold on to that memory we hold so dear, yet these images are so much more. Portraits possess the power to shape and cement ones identity and status, and though an image can be fictional and fabricated, the end result is in and of itself is immanent. Not so innocuous, the portrait, when you think about it…

Canonize yourself in Elizabeth’s project TONIGHT at ARTafterDARK and this weekend (her last at the Academy). Call 532-8700 or visit our website for more information.

Last year, the Capitol held its first “Art at the Capitol”—an art open house at the Hawai‘i State Legislature. Spearheaded by Sen. Brian Taniguchi, the event was a success and on March 5, 5-7pm, you can once again wander into your legistators’ offices to see the artwork they’ve chosen from the state’s Art in Public Places program.
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On view in the exhibition “From Whistler to Warhol: Modernism on Paper” is Raoul Dufy’s “The Woman of Martinique,” which he created in 1931. I was admiring the flowing lines, the weight of the woman—I could feel her languidly reclining. And all of a sudden another image flashed in my mind—a self-portrait by Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary third grader Nikki Santos, which was on view last summer in a special exhibition of artwork by students who had participated in our Art to Go outreach program. The works are separated by decades and geography, yet are strikingly similar. Nikki Santos, you’ve got talent!

Auguste Renoir was born 169 years ago today in Limoges, France. We’re so lucky to have his etching “A Dance in the Country,” which just went on view in “From Whistler to Warhol: Modernism on Paper.”

Renoir, along with fellow Impressionists Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas, pushed the limits of etching. Known for their desire to capture the temporality of appearances and the fleeting effects of light, the Impressionists were drawn to the unpredictability of etching and the inevitable uniqueness of each image pulled. (From the exhibition brochure by Curator Theresa Papanikolas.)

You can see this sweet moment in time through July 3.

Indicator species are living things (plants and animals) that can be examined to understand the environment inwhich they live. Fluctuations in population and health of an indicator species signifies a change in the environment. In many ways, the visual arts is an indicator species. Shifts in social, political, and economical environments greatly affect the art that is produced at any given time. By gaining a better understanding of how shifts and trends develop in art, one can have a greater insight to the history of the world around us.

Just because they are furloughed, doesn’t mean Hawaii’s teachers are resting on their laurels.

On Feb. 6 and 13, the Academy held the free teacher workshop “Teaching History Through Art” and 45 dedicated public school history teachers from throughout the state—Oahu, Maui (including two from Hana!), Molokai, Kauai and Hawaii—attended.
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Way before Doris Duke Theatre was even built, the Academy was showing movies. We’re talking silent films in Central Courtyard in 1938. Stuff like “The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots,” a super early experimental film produced by Mr Electricity, Thomas Alva Edison, and the Mack Sennett classic comedy “A Clever Dummy.” How amazing would it have been to sit under the Honolulu moon watching Georges Méliès’ pioneering scifi  “A Trip to the Moon” from 1902? That’s what played Feb. 17, 1938—the first night of film at the Academy. Where did the 16mm reels come from? The Academy had an agreement with the Museum of Modern Art Film Library Corporation, which lent us 17 films for a first series that ran from Feb. 17 to March 17, 1938. The shipment cost $187.50.

This week a year ago, Honolulu residents watched Al Jolson in “The Jazz Singer,” the first feature-length talkie. Seventy-two years later, if you come down tonight, you can see the newest documentary from Frederick Wiseman, “La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet.”

The Academy invites you to Academy Art Center at Linekona to see two explosive murals by legendary graffiti artists Estria (aka Estria Miyashiro) and Prime (aka John Hina, a member of 808urban). We send them a heartfelt thank you for donating their talent and time to create the works on formerly drab shipping containers at the Academy Art Center at Linekona.
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That ubiquitous portrait… you know, the one where you have your arm stretched out in front of you, hoping your face is in frame. Yes, that portrait. The one where some celebrity is somewhere in a blurry background. The one you have as your profile pic on Myspace, Facebook and Twitter… Oh how the portrait has (d)evolved over the years… For the next six weeks, a budding photographer takes her shot at the classic genre.

The lights, props, and camera are ready. So is Elizabeth Curtis, The Academy’s next Artist in Residence. Her plan is to capture visitors in candid and staged portraits with the museum as the backdrop. In a building full of portraits, Curtis hopes that through her project, visitors will examine “the implications of portraiture, its inherent construction, and its effect on identity formation.”

Would you like to have your portrait taken? Sign up for a half-hour session with Curtis at the Academy’s Visitor Information Center at the entrance of the museum.

Funded by The Artur and Mae Orvis Foundation Inc., Curtis’ residency runs from January 23 to February 28, weekends during museum hours.

The kids enrolled in the Academy Art Center at Linekona’s Exploring Art of Furlough Fridays classes (so popular we had to add an extra one) got a special treat today—four cast members of “Stomp” and Kenny Endo’s Taiko Arts Group dropped by for a special show. Passersby stopped to join in the fun, and one dad went and grabbed his kids from a nearby school.
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The Academy is honored that Estria and Prime will paint a freezer container at the Academy Art Center at Linekona tomorrow afternoon. Want to see graffiti heavyweights in action? Estria, who organized the graffiti battle at Blaisdell back in May and whose roots are on O‘ahu, and Prime will get started at noon and work through Sunday. They recommend you drop by around 2pm. The duo will transform the freezer with a design they’re working on right now. The mural above is just to give you a taste of what’s to come. One of Estria’s priorities is doing community outreach. He sees graffiti as way not to teach kids how to tag their names but to connect to their communities.

In October, Estria held the Third Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle in Oakland, where he is now based. For more on Estria, check this recent interview on Hyphen Magazine’s blog.

See you at Academy Art Center at Linekona tomorrow! Parking is available behind the building, entrances are on Beretania and Young streets.

Academy Art Center at Linekona, 1111 Victoria St., 532-8741