The 77

A UCLA professor sizes up Hawaii's best art of the year

A fresh eye. That's the goal of inviting an expert from outside a community to jury an art exhibition. An outsider's viewpoint dispenses with the baggage of influences and familiarity an artist carries in the community; it offers an original perspective, which then opens up refreshing possibilities for the exhibit.

On Exhibit » On view: Through July 29 » Place: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 900 S. Beretania St. » Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays » Admission: $10; $5 students, seniors and military; children free (free admission on the first Wednesday and third Sunday of the month) » Call: 532-8700

That's a tall order for a juror to fill, but Hawaii's most prominent juried exhibit, "Artists of Hawaii" at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, faithfully follows this tack. Each year, the academy brings in a new outside juror to mix things up.

In the past, however, the approach sometimes backfired: Rather than providing a new point of view, jurors time and again would select the same artists for the show, and local audiences would reply with a yawn. After all, what's new and exciting to an outsider can quickly become run-of-the-mill to the folks who follow the show every year.

Happily that's not the case with "Artists of Hawaii 2007." The academy garnered a fresh eye in Russell Ferguson, chair of the Department of Art at the University of California-Los Angeles. Ferguson's top picks, which comprise nine awards, collectively possess the sensibility of an urban perspective, and indeed, Ferguson cites the big cities of Los Angeles and New York as his professional stomping grounds. His selections reflect a body of work that are not the usual suspects, in a show that's become the epitome of defining fine art in Hawaii.

Ferguson readily admits that his selections don't spring from any particular knowledge of Hawaii; rather, they reflect "my own background and my own taste," he says in his juror's statement. "On the other hand, I believe that it can be salutary and refreshing to have someone from outside the immediate community make a selection of the work being made here."

The juror's job was no small task -- he waded through 901 entries and whittled the show down to 77 pieces. The significance of the high numbers wasn't lost on Ferguson. They're "a testament to the vibrant artistic life of Hawaii," he says.

"Regrettably, it is possible to select ... only a very small proportion of the work submitted, but I was happy to see it all."