This August, Impact Hub HNL presents our third ImpactART event, featuring three Hawaii artists: Bai Xin Chen, Ryan Higa, and Sheanae Tam. This is the first group show that we’ve hosted, and will be slightly different than the previous shows featuring Lauren Hana Chai and Boz Schurr, as these artists all work in different mediums, bringing diverse textures and context to the show. The ImpactART evening will feature a brief program, a scavenger hunt, and a Q&A session with all three artists.
ImpactART will be held August 15, from 6pm-8pm. Everyone is welcome; RSVP for this free event here.
About the title, How Do We Do, Higa explains that, “the title ‘How Do We Do’ works on two levels. First, it refers to the physical and technical processes that we use to make the work. It’s the ‘How do you do that?’ Second, it suggests an emotional or intellectual state of being in reference to the work that we’re creating. That’s the ‘How are you doing?’ I feel that most art is a fluid combination of both Hows.”
“It refers to the physical aspect of making as well as the emotional and psychological,” Chen says of the title.
Chen has come to Oahu via China and Hong Kong. He works with wood shavings, making collages and other installations with the wood. His work has been exhibited at Impact Hub HNL, Hawaii State Art Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art School, and the 2019 Venice Biennale’s Imago Mundi Collection .
Higa, originally from Oahu, works with colored pencil and graphite on paper, and does larger painted installations – his work is featured on the walls of Impact Hub HNL.
Tam, also from Oahu, comes from a long line of fishermen, and her work reflects a deep connection with the ocean and its creatures. “I have been and still am constantly a part of diving, fishing, preparing, eating, and disposing all sorts of sea life. As an artist I have been recording these moments in my work, coupled with research about the ahupua’a, habitat, and nature of the creatures.” Tam works primarily with acrylic on canvas, and her work featuring the original fishponds of Kakaako adorns our walls in the nook.
More about ImpactART: Our ImpactART program supports Hawaii’s artists by creating an equal exchange of artwork for studio and exhibition space. Co-created by Impact Hub Honolulu and Honolulu Biennial Foundation in 2017 to address the need for art studios and the proper valuation of artists’ work, ImpactART will trade space, materials and a gallery show within the Impact Hub for art.
