Impressions: the Honolulu Printmakers at Shangri La

The collaboration fourteen years ago was a key moment in the history of Shangri La, as the open access for the Honolulu Printmakers artists predated our well-known Artists-in-Residence program. 

These prints therefore record the first-known artistic responses to Shangri La as a public institution, made even richer by their production by, and connections to, artists from the local community in Honolulu. 

2018 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Honolulu Printmakers and this exhibition honors this early collaboration between the organization and Shangri La, and suggests how artists may enrich the self-understanding of a public institution.

Several of the artists explored the interplay of light and shadow on the surfaces of the architecture of Shangri La: dappled figures, refracted prisms, and leafy shadows all sculpt and ornament the walls, courtyard, and rooflines of the museum. 

The restrained, cool palette of blacks, blues, and whites allows the viewer’s focus to concentrate on the light - and what it conceals, as well as highlights.

The layering of patterns - both the geometric tessellations common in the arts of the Islamic world, as well as those from nature - appealed to many of the artists, who explored these elements in what Laura Smith noted was “an ambivalent definition of inside and outside space.” 

The wide variety of subjects include the architectural niche of a chinikhana, the sculpted shapes of molded tiles, and natural elements - from the gardens and lawns of the museum, to a whimsical textile-embossed pineapple.

The palettes of the artists frequently reference the rich mix of colors at Shangri La: the cobalts and turquoises of the glazed tiles, the jewel tones of the stained glass windows, or the earthy warmth of the embroidered textiles - all of which provide what Marcia Morse described as a “wealth of sensory pleasures.”