Maui Arts & Cultural Center presents FOCUS in the Schaefer International Gallery, June 15 to Aug. 7

Maui Arts & Cultural Center presents FOCUS in Schaefer International Gallery, a group exhibition featuring the work of seven contemporary Japanese photographers who go by the collective name Photography? End? The artists include Yuji Hamada, Ken Kitano, Miki Nitadori, Yuki Onodera, Naruki Oshima, Risaku Suzuki, and Kazuyoshi Usui. Their respective avenues of work look at the potentiality of photography in a rapidly evolving digital age, with a diverse range of approaches in material innovation. The exhibition runs from June 15 through Aug. 7. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Gallery Director Jonathan Yukio Clark, who curated the exhibition, said, “In the midst of this age of ubiquitous digital content, these artists look to photography’s fundamental roots in film and its technical potential to engage in experimental processes that merge with their conceptual groundings. Their work is a reminder that there are many ways to arrive at a photographic image, often using unexpected techniques or analog processes to discover untapped possibility.” The exhibition will feature a body of recent work from each artist, including pigment prints, image exposures on alternate materials, photographic collage, projection, and large-scale installation.

Yuki Onodera is based in Paris and creates experimental work that diverges from traditional schemas of “photography,” posing two questions: what is photography, and what can be achieved through it? In her monumental exhibited work, she uses photographic prints as raw material, collaging together architectural and figurative images to evoke cubist stylization, hybridized location, and architecture as body.

Kazuyoshi Usui is an independent photographer based in Tokyo. His cinematic approach to photography imagines a fantastical scenario in which Japan’s Showa era (1926 – 1989) had continued to exist in another time and space, finding aesthetic beauty in the flashy contradictions of the time period and the gritty determination to survive.

Miki Nitadori was born in Tokyo, grew up in Thailand, Hawai‘i, and Europe, and is currently based in Paris. As a migrant and an adult ‘Third Culture Kid,’ her multi-disciplinary works centered in photography explore the complexities of inner self and the interconnectedness of expression. She will exhibit a site-specific installation that reinterprets generational photographs of Japanese American communities.

Risaku Suzuki is based in Tokyo and is a Professor at Tokyo Art University Faculty of Fine Arts, Advanced Art Expression. He uses unusual vantage points to shoot a variety of subjects, ranging from cherry blossoms to snowscapes. His various projects display a critical awareness of the act of seeing and the unique characteristics of the photographic medium.

Ken Kitano currently lives and works in Tokyo as Professor of Photography at Zokei University. Kitano’s Gathering Light series employs six-month long exposures from solstice to solstice, capturing Japan’s distinct landscapes and cityscapes in subdued darkness while chronicling the movement of the cosmos relative to Earth’s rotation.

Naruki Oshima is a Professor at Tama Art University. He applies a complex technical process to deconstruct an image, placing the camera at a fixed point and methodically capturing shots with various depths of focus. After reassembling the shots, the finalized images portray still life compositions that echo the human optical experience of rendering focus through blurred layers.

Yuji Hamada is an independent photographer who experiments with unconventional approaches to create work that is highly conceptual yet rooted in the fundamentals of analog photography. For this exhibition, he is developing a brand-new series of work that explores light and matter on Maui through colored film captures of ocean horizons and monochromatic image exposures onto dimensional objects.

As a collective, the artists of Photography? End? are active in many formats. They approach their photographic pursuits individually without a shared goal, allowing the interrelation and contrast between their bodies of work to unfold naturally in conversation. They have exhibited at multiple venues internationally, often engaging in collaborative programming, and have recently published a book, also titled Photography? End?, that chronicles their work.

Schaefer International Gallery is open from Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and also before select Castle Theater shows. Admission is free. The gallery will be closed Saturday, June 22.

This exhibition is presented by Maui Arts & Cultural Center and supported in part by the Japan Foundation and County of Maui – Office of Economic Development.

Related Public Events

Photographic Movements – Artist Presentations
Saturday, June 15 at 2 p.m. in Alexa Higashi Meeting Room
Visitors will have the chance to hear from each of the seven artists as they give a brief talk and accompanying
slide presentation about their studio practices and their distinct approaches to the medium of photography.
FREE! No RSVP required.

Workshop: Cyanotype Fascinations
Sunday, June 16 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Led by Ken Kitano, participants will create their own compositions and expose them onto paper and fabric
using the cyanotype process. Bring your own lunch.
$75 per person, includes materials. Space is limited. To register contact: galleryassistant@mauiarts.org

ACTIVATIONS
Thursday, Aug. 1 from 5 – 9 p.m. in the Gallery and Yokouchi Pavilion & Courtyard
This program series features an evening of “activations” unfolding in the gallery space with live movement and
music performances that engage in dialogue with the exhibition. Food and beverage offerings available for
purchase during the event.
FREE Entry. Ticketed reservations required / Registration opens soon via mauiarts.org