Monday, July 6, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
An Artist Panel Discussion featuring Kaili Chun, Chae Ho Lee, Kalani Largusa, Keith Tallett. Moderated by Trisha Lagaso Goldberg.
Each of the panelists Kaili Chun, Chae Ho Lee, Kalani Largusa, and Keith Tallett will offer insight into their individual practice with an aim to generate a productive dialogue on how select artists of Hawaiʻi conceptualize the notion of place. Artists are asked to consider the popular notion of “A Hawai‘i Sense of Place” as a departure point for discussion.
This panel will engage in discussion of place, placemaking, and will be moderated by curator and artist, Trisha Lagaso Goldberg.
RSVP details forthcoming.
Kaili Chun is a sculptor and installation artist who negotiates ideas of containment and exposure, agency and restraint. Process and materials transform physical spaces into unique environments commenting on contemporary issues in her work. She often constructs narratives through symbols and objects that address the impact of historical events on the present day. Organic elements are sometimes included in her pieces, and the changes they undergo during the course of an exhibition metaphorically reference the nature of culture as an evolutionary process. Chun’s diverse training includes receiving her Bachelor’s in Architecture from Princeton University, during which time she also studied with renown ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu; an MFA from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; and an apprenticeship with master canoe builder and woodworker Wright Elemakule Bowman, Sr. Numerous museums and galleries such as the University of Alaska Museum; Linden Museum Stuttgart in Germany; Museum of Art & Design, New York; Sacred Circle Gallery, Washington; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; and the Honolulu Museum of Art have exhibited Chun’s installations. Kaili has received a number of significant visual art awards. She was awarded the 2014 Native Arts & Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowship; in 2010 she received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant and in 2008 participated in the Artist Residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Chun received the Catherine E.B. Cox Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts (2006) from the Honolulu Academy of Arts, which culminated in the solo exhibition, “Nau ka wae, The Choice Belongs to You.” Her work is included in many private and institutional collections in Hawai‘i and Germany.
Chae Ho Lee’s work spans advertising, exhibition, identity, lettering, publication and web design. He has worked for a number of prestigious advertising agencies and design studios in the Pacific Rim, New York City and Dubai. He has lived in the Middle East for over 6 years teaching and directing design programs at several leading academic institutions in the region. He has exhibited his work internationally and published extensively for several leading design journals and publications. Lee was awarded the university’s Regents’ medal for excellence in teaching in 2011.
N. Trisha Lagaso Goldberg is an Aiea-based arts worker, independent curator, public art administrator, and artist. From 1991 to 2004, Trisha was active in the San Francisco Bay Area where she earned degrees from the San Francisco Art Institute and San Francisco State University and worked with such organizations as SFMOMA, SFSU Fine Arts Gallery, Southern Exposure, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Trisha has lived and worked on O‘ahu, the island of her birth, since 2005. She is a public art Project Manager for the Art in Public Places Program at the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and manager of the Artists in Residence Program. She’s curated and organized exhibitions and public programs for museums and art-run spaces throughout Honolulu. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Honolulu Contemporary Museum and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco, and has been featured in the Wallpaper* City Guide Honolulu, FLUX Hawaii magazine, and the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
Kalani Largusa is from Kapahi, Kaua‘i. He entered the University of Hawai‘i’s MFA program in the fall of 2013. He previously studied drawing and illustration at the California College of Arts [CCA] and received his BFA in painting studio practice from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. He was a San Diego Comic Convention invitee to the Comic Scholar Poster Session, a guest speaker at San Francisco’s WonderCon, and the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo to present his paper entitled “The significance of Kato and the evolution of his role as the Green Hornets sidekick.” Kalani was also a feature artist in Chicago’s Next Generation, 18th annual Asian American Showcase in 2013. His work centers on process of painting filtered through Polynesian tattoo symbolism and methodology, and “almost western” comic book iconography. Whether sharp detailed draftsmanship, mixed-media mashup journaling, or large non-representational paintings, Largusa’s work is ultimately an investigation of marks. He is currently represented by Gallery HNL and will be one of the artists featured in the gallery’s group show expected in late November of this year.
Keith Tallett is a Hawai‘i-based mixed media artist whose work utilizes humor & irony to create a dialogue between cultural practices, local knowledge systems and popular culture. Often focusing on commodity fetishism, privatization of land ownership and the accumulation of cultural capital, the work takes form in paintings, drawings, photography, installation and sculpture. Most recently Keith has developed a collaborative practice with his wife, artist Sally Lundburg, under the name Les Filter Feeders. Together they participated in the Honolulu residency, Present Project in 2014, where they created a large-scale installation inspired by the structures, language, and tools of shelter and survival. Keith has exhibited at such venues as the Honolulu Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Track 16 Gallery in Los Angeles, and Franklin Parrasch Gallery in New York. He was included in the Artists of Hawai‘i 2011 exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art, where he received the Jean Charlot Foundation Award for Excellence and in 2012, was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Sculptor and Painter Grant. His forthcoming projects include The Rat and The Octopus, at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center in 2016. Keith’s professional experience includes being a juror for the 2015 International Schaefer Portrait Challenge, lecturing at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Art Department from 2004 – 2011, and being a founding member of AGGROculture, a Hawaiʻi based art collective. Keith has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BA from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. www.keithtallett.com www.lesfilterfeeders.com
This artist panel is a part of the 2015 Global Asia/Pacific Art Exchange (GAX) initiatives. 2105 GAX thanks the support of NYU Office of the Provost Global Research Initiatives and major airline sponsor Hawaiian Airlines
Diasporic Asian Art Network 