The Contemporary Museum Biennial Exhibition of HawaiÎi Artists
June 17 - August 21st

Continuing a tradition begun in 1993 and celebrating its seventh year, The Contemporary Museum Biennial Exhibition of HawaiÎi Artists offers a selection of some of the best recent work by artists living and working in the state. Organized by TCMâs Associate Curator/Curator, The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center, Allison Wong, this invitational exhibition reflects the diversity and range of work being done in HawaiÎi today. The Seventh Biennial features the work of the following artists: Charles Cohan of Honolulu (printmaking); Sergio Goes of Honolulu (photography); Claudia Johnson of Haiku, Maui (fiber); Jacqueline Rush Lee of Honolulu (installation); Michael Lee of Honolulu (turned and carved wood); Michael Marshall of Hilo (painting); and Christopher Reiner of Honolulu/KauaÎi (sculpture). The Contemporary Museum Biennial Exhibition of HawaiÎi Artists is made possible by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Aston Hotels & Resorts? Hawaii. Additonal support provided by Persis Corporation, Honu Group, 2100 Kalakaua, GUCCI, Tyrie Lee Jenkins, George Norcross and JC Plastics. A full-color catalogue with essays on each of the artists by Marcia Morse accompanies this exhibition. The catalogue will be available for sale in The Contemporary Museum Shop.

Charles Cohan

Charles Cohan presents two current bodies of work for this exhibition. The first titled Termimal Diagrams, is a wall installation of 22 x 22 inch collagraph prints representing 56 international airport maps. Intended to form a graphic typology, the project visually references a range of image archetypes including utilitarian architectural formations, informational symbols, linguistic characters, directional signs, and symbolic illustrations. Printed in black with a stark outline configuration, the designs reflect the demographics of security, surveillance, and distribution within the architectural vocabulary of the plan diagram. Cohanâs second series consists of screen-printed studies of mountain peaks from around the world.

Cohan received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from California College of Arts and Crafts and a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has held positions as Assistant Professor of Art at Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is currently Associate Professor and Printmaking Program Chair at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Recent research and teaching projects have taken him to Hard Ground Printmakers in Cape Town, South Africa, the University of Georgia Study Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy, the Fundacion Ludwig in Havana, Cuba, and the Pilchuck Glass School.

Sergio Goes
In 2001, three weeks after 9/11, Sergio Goes decided to move back to Honolulu and chose to drive across America from New York to Los Angeles, documenting the people and places he saw along the way. The result is a portrait of the country titled God Bless America: ATM Inside. This exhibition presents a selection of color photographs along with a DVD of interviews telling a story about the people and cultures of America.

Originally from Brazil, Sergio Goes began his career as a professional photographer and has published and exhibited his photographs and films nationally and internationally. In 2000, his feature-length documentary Black Picket Fence won awards at the Brooklyn International Film Festival and at the Full Frame Film Festival. He is the founder of Cinema Paradise, a non-profit organization that produces an annual film festival in Honolulu and promotes creative expression through the medium of film in HawaiÎi.

Claudia Johnson
Claudia Johnson a fiber artist from Haiku, Maui, will create several new works designed especially for this exhibition and utilizing the natural materials found surrounding her studio and home. Known for her painstaking and dexturous arrangements of strawberry guava branches, shower tree twigs or catsclaw vines, Johnson manipulates these fibers into new organic sculptures. Claudia Johnson received her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Arts and her Master of Arts in Sculpture and Fiber from San Francisco State University. She resides on Maui and is a studio Artist and Project Manager at Art Farm, a 40-acre sculpture park and visiting artist residency program. She was an invited solo artist for the Artists of Hawaii 1999 exhibition at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Jacqueline Rush Lee
Jacqueline Rush Lee finds herself drawn to materials, textures, colors and forms found in her environment. She is particularly interested in objects that have a history of use and abandonment, or bear the imperfections and scars of life and physical processes. She is interested in manipulating these objects to transform and alter them from their expected functions. For the Biennial she has created a large installation entitled Epic which uses a technique developed by the artist called impresco, a process in which Lee uses old books and imprints the covers into gypsum cement. The flocking and dye from the covers are absorbed and imbedded in the gypsum cement, leaving behind a very painterly surface as well as documenting the history of the individual who might have owned the book. Two additional works in the exhibition also include books. Using paperback books purchased through thrift shops and library sales, Lee uses the dye on the edges of the books usually in shades of blue, red and yellow to create a form of ăscapes.ä Imprinting the edge of the books in a deliberate fashion, Lee creates a Hawaiian landscape. The third work utilizes coiled paperbacks, creating perhaps a topographical look at our islands.

Born in Northern Ireland, Lee received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 1997 and her Master of Fine Arts in 2000 from the University of HawaiÎi at Manoa. She has had solo exhibitions in 2003 at Studio 1 Window Space in Honolulu and at the Hui Noâeau Visual Arts Center on Maui in 2002.

Michael Lee
To create his small-scale wood sculptures Michael Lee begins with an image in his mind and then works through a combination of curves and surface textures to transform the image into physical reality tinged with a sense of surrealism. Inspired by objects and animals found in nature, such as shells, stones, nests and sea life, he builds his pieces through traditional turning on a lathe, then spends numerous hours carving layers of surface treatments while striving to emphasize the complex tactile qualities of each work.

Lee was born and raised on Oahu and is a self-employed studio artist. He received formal training in woodturning at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee from 1990 to 1993. He has recently exhibited at the Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles, California and at the Museum of Art in Provo, Utah.

Michael Marshall
This exhibition features Michael Marshallâs mixed media and ink works on paper. Marshallâs works often start with a series of gestures and may incorporate oil or acrylic based paints, industrial enamels, and alkyd resins among other media. His drawings are often expressed through a build-up of marks adjusted in weight to suggest relative spatial position, while the motifs are often based on observations taken from nature or his environment.

Marshall received his Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Yale University and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He has received numerous awards and prizes including, most recently, the Jurorâs Award for Mixed Media from the All HawaiÎi Juried Art Exhibition at the East HawaiÎi Cultural Center. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art at the University of HawaiÎi, Hilo.

Christopher Reiner
Christopher Reinerâs Series The Transportation of Situation is made up of found objects with a rejected history, which Reiner terms ăObtainiumä. He is inspired by their potential stories and moved by their beauty. The series consists of a group of vehicles, or modes of transport, intended to carry one through lifeâs ups and downs.

Reiner received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota Florida. He has recently exhibited on Kauai at the Kauai Society of Artists Small Works Show and in Honolulu at the Arts at Markâs Garage.