Giving new life to nature

A retrospective displays Charles Higa's visionary work

Renowned in Hawaii for both his art and his teaching, Charles Higa is also noted for the fact that he works in both watercolor and ceramics, two contrasting traditions of art making. The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center showcases the best of both worlds in "Then and Now; A Retrospective of Charles E. Higa," on exhibit through Sept. 25.

In her essay on Higa in a catalog for the show, art writer Marcia Morse says the artist is "very much at ease with the juxtaposition of fine art painting and functional ceramics." Morse quotes Higa as saying that he employed ceramics in his work as an art teacher because ceramics has, through the ages, been "an excellent meeting ground for all people" because of its utilitarian function.

But however distinct the media of painting and ceramics might be, there is a unifying theme in Higa's work that transcends those distinctions: his inspiration from nature. Both on the canvas and on the clay, Higa's work suggests landscapes, in "fluid washes of color, now intense, now muted, articulated with the delicate calligraphic marks that spell out the contours of nature ," Morse writes.

The exhibit spans four decades, from the 1960s when Higa was a fresh new face, to works from recent years.

The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop St., is open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays and until 6 p.m. Fridays. Call 526-0232 or visit tcmhi.org.

Shingo Honda: 'Harmonious whole'

Change is inspiration for Big Island artist Shingo Honda. The painter/sculptor/printmaker has through the years explored, in his own words, "the constant change as the natural order of life within the harmonious whole."

Honda's paintings from the 1990s and his most recent mixed-media works on paper are on exhibit alongside Charles Higa's works at the Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center through Sept. 25.

Honda conveys the continuous state of change through works that seem both rational and illogical all at once. Forms overlap and shift in pieces that elude meaning yet maintain an air of familiarity.