(1888PressRelease)
February 27, 2009 - Join us at Alfa Art Gallery from March 5 to March 25, 2009 and explore a far off world where abstraction meets the natural world in our upcoming exhibition The Essence of Nature: the works of John Hawaka. The exhibition will display an array of Mr. Hawaka’s experimental, large format, abstract works executed in the rare lacquer painting technique. The artist is one of the few artists in North America employing this technique.
Curator: Natalie Trainor
Exhibition duration: March 5-25, 2009
Opening reception: March 5th 2009 – 7:00 – 11:00pm
Live Music by: Fancesca Tedeschi; Trinitron
John Hawaka about “The Essence of Nature”
I want to share my love of nature through my paintings. I hope to inspire my viewers to see that the beauty of nature lies not just in a spectacular sunset, a flowering dogwood, or a baby fawn. Beauty can also be seen beneath a carpet of decomposing leaves - creatures who live there help to nourish the trees that eventually make the forests.
Through my style of color and form, I hope to evoke the feeling of the very Essence of Nature…that which we sometimes cannot see, but always exists. As a society, we must protect nature’s ability to provide us with beautiful sunsets, flowering trees and precious animals.
We must accept the role of guardians to ensure that future generations will inherit a pristine and Green earth.
Natalie Trainor about John Hawaka and "The Essence of Nature”
John Hawaka, an artist who believes that fantastic paintings are created by mistake, has been painting seriously since the 1970s and The Essence of Nature is representative of the artist’s mature works. Included in the exhibition will be early works, in which Mr. Hawaka first visually expressed the influence nature has on his creative process. In Dunes, an acrylic on a canvas made from a burlap bag, the viewer is confronted with an abstracted beach scene where the artist paints his remembrance of Cape Cod. When asked, “How does one mature as an artist?” John simply replied, “Evolution.” When sitting down and talking to the artist, it became clear that his unique style did not develop over night. According to Mr. Hawaka, “what he paints now he would not have been able to paint ten years ago.”
In between his earliest phase as an artist and now Mr. Hawaka has experimented in several different mediums. For example, at one point of his artistic career, a point in time when John could not afford oil paints, he painted in house paint mixed with sand. He put down his paintbrush and picked up a palette knife, which added thickness and depth to the canvas that could not have been produced had he chosen to use a brush. The palette knife afforded John the freedom he desired. Moving on from house paint Mr. Hawaka turned to nature for supplies to work within the financial constraints he experienced as an artist. His next phase included an organic medium, acrylic on luan mahogany, one found outdoors and not in an art supply shop. Once again, John was working within the financial means that he believes controlled his style of art.
What one will find in The Essence of Nature are paintings in which the artist employs the lacquer technique. It is a style and creative process based upon time and chemistry. It is a mysterious process because the artist is hesitant to disclose exactly how it is done. The outcome is myriad waves of bright colors akin to what one would find in a watercolor painting. Solvents control the lacquer, which creates one of a kind painting that is impossible to reproduce. For Mr. Hawaka there is no message in mind when painting. There are no magical words to explain what and why he is creating. His art is his mistress, it controls him, he does not control the art.
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