The Donkey Mill Art Center is hosting woodblock printers in “Wood/Ink/Fiber,” its first biennial statewide juried exhibition.
The public is invited to attend an opening reception and presentation of awards of excellence from 6-8 p.m. today at Donkey Mill, 78-6670 Mamalahoa Highway in Holualoa.
The exhibition, juried by artist John Buck, is on view through July 9. Representatives from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts will be in attendance tonight, considering purchases for the state collection.
Buck has been an adviser and collaborating artist at Donkey Mill Art Center since its founding in 1994.
“You can tell certain people have a lot of experience. (There is) a sophistication in their graphic technique,” Buck said. “Others are new to the process and they are exploring new possibilities. I selected work that had a certain quality — a sense of exploration and of trying something new.”
Artistic director Hiroki Morinoue teaches courses in traditional woodcut and hand-printing techniques at Donkey Mill.
Morinoue purchased a Griffin Press in Oakland, Calif., in the 1980s and shipped it to Holualoa. He used it to introduce Kona artists to moku hanga, western woodcut and monotypes. It was later donated to the newly established Donkey Mill print studio, enabling a program for teaching classes, publishing small editions of hand-pulled prints and collaborating with professional artists.
For Morinoue, printmaking is a “gateway” into art.
“Printmaking is a process art. We start from working the plates, then color, diversity of media, turn a daytime image to a nighttime image and get all the subtleties in between,” said Morinoue, who has taught printmaking more than 30 years.
Of the current exhibit, Morinoue said, “We had to figure out what people are not doing and do something different. We have about 55 entries from Maui, Honolulu and Hilo.”
In the end, 26 prints were selected from 22 artists for the “Wood/Ink/Fiber” exhibit. For more information about the exhibit, print courses and open studio, visit www.donkeymillartcenter.org or call 322-3362.
