Nahenahe: Recent Paintings by Robert Kushner
September 21 - December 5, 2001

Robert Kushner was born in 1949 in Pasadena, California and received his BA in 1971 from the University of California at San Diego. In 1972 he moved to New York, where he currently resides. His works can be found in the collections of the Tate Gallery, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Kushner first gained attention in the 1970s as a performance artist. He is now well-known for his paintings employing a brightly colored palette and floral subject matter. Influenced by the artists Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard and Odilon Redon, as well as by traditional Japanese and Chinese paintings, Kushner achieves a combination of color and form that is distinctly his own.

Kushner titled this exhibition Nahenahe, which slack key guitarist George Kuo defines as "soft, sweet and gentle—music to relax the mind and fulfill the soul." Kushner first visited Hawai'i in 1985 and has continued to make periodic trips to the islands to paint and make prints. He is inspired by Hawaii's plant life; the warm, sunny weather; and the colors and textures found in the Islands.

This exhibition presents a series of five large canvases executed in Hawai'i in 2000 and 2001. Using traditional sign painters' brushes, Kushner combines delicate lines and bold forms to create brilliantly colored compositions of Hawai'i's foliage—including plumerias, bromeliads and heliconias—that blend representation and abstraction. Often, the floral forms are represented by outlines, which serve to flatten the space and remind the viewer of the two-dimensionality of the artwork. The interplay between two- and three-dimensionality gives Kushner the chance to explore the sensual shapes as well as the intense colors and gentle textures of his subject matter. The use of glitter and a variety of metallic leaf squares reflect light and adds modulation to the surface of the paintings, heightening their visual impact.