Kahilu Exhibits at Kahilu Theatre presents solo exhibitions by Oahu-based artist, Ming Li Jiang, and ceramicist Peter Durst.
Jiang’s exhibition, The Islands Through Curtains, will feature new paintings in Kahilu’s Hamakua Gallery, while Durst’s 3D artwork will be featured in his Ceramic Connections inside Kahilu’s Simperman Gallery. The exhibits will display through May 5.
Jiang’s abstract paintings draw upon the history of ancient Chinese poets observing the natural world through the slats of the bamboo curtains in their studios. From this vantage point, the landscapes and scenery outside were hazy and faint, fluttering in the breeze. The artist explains, “The bamboo curtain separates the viewer from the observed object, and the distance creates a unique sense of beauty.”
In The Islands Through Curtains, Jiang invites us to see our world and the beauty of these islands through his eyes, and his mind’s curtain.
Durst’s ceramic artwork also draws upon the beauty and mystery of the natural world while using abstraction to illustrate the artist’s unique perspective of our surroundings. Durst explains, “I like work that involves dynamic tension, as if counterbalancing forces were at work to sustain things in a precarious equilibrium; how things stay together and how they fall apart, and how time works its way to expose cracks, fissures, strata.”
The handmade and natural worlds collide in the rich textures and colors of his ceramic canoe forms, teapots, water tower sculptures, and abstract shapes.
Ming Li Jiang arrived in Hawai in 1989 as an art student and has made his home here since. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1954 and graduated from Fine Arts College of Shanghai University, where he became an instructor upon graduation. Jiang has worked as art director of painting and design for numerous local companies, including prominent Aloha print and textile companies. In 2000, Jiang established his own design company, Kalama Collection LTD. In 2019, Jiang’s work returned to Shanghai for a solo exhibition hosted at Museum of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai University. His work was selected later that year for the Art in Public Places collection of the State Foundation of Culture and the Arts. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Hawaii.
Durst has been a potter, ceramicist, and sculptor for almost 50 years and has exhibited his work nationally in galleries, art centers, museums, private collections, and public spaces. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College and a juris doctorate from NYU School of Law, he became interested in pottery and discovered the Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado. The artist has maintained Durst Studio, Gallery, and Sculpture Garden in Denver, Colorado since 1990. He has been a long-time visitor to the Big Island, and became a part-time resident in 2010. Durst has a studio in Napo’opo’o and teaches ceramics at Donkey Mill Art Center in Holualoa.
The galleries are free and open to the public from 1 to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Exhibitions may also be viewed by ticket-holders to performances at Kahilu Theatre before their events.