Maui Arts & Cultural Center presents ACTIVATIONS: After Hours, Nov. 21

Maui Arts & Cultural Center announces the latest iteration in its program series, ACTIVATIONS: After Hours at the Gallery. The event takes place on Friday, Nov. 21 from 5 to 8 p.m. and features an evening of acoustic and dance performances that come to life in and around Schaefer International Gallery.

The program is held in conjunction with the Gallery’s current exhibition, Satoru Abe: Reaching for the Sun. Entry to the event is free, with ticketed reservations required via the MACC Box Office through mauiarts.org. Food and beverage offerings will be available for purchase in the Yokouchi Courtyard & Pavilion.

The exhibition Reaching for the Sun showcases over seven decades of work by one of Hawaiʻi’s most prominent artists, Satoru Abe (1926-2025). This retrospective presents a selection of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper that range from the artist’s early explorations of the figure in the 1950s, through his depictions of natural forms in the second half of the 20th century, to his most recent body of abstract paintings in his closing years.

Expanding on the themes present in Satoru Abe’s artwork, the evening will feature instrumentalists, dance and projection artists, and DJ sets in dialogue with the artist’s stylized world.

In the gallery, Christopher Yohmei Blasdel will perform selected works on the shakuhachi (Japanese flute).

Studying under Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi from 1972-1999, Christopher received an MFA in ethnomusicology from Tokyo University of the Arts and was awarded shihan master ranking by Yamaguchi. In his musical activities, he balances traditional shakuhachi music, modern compositions, improvisation, and cross-genre work with musicians, dancers, poets, and visual artists.

Also in the gallery, Mika Inaba will play classical compositions on the koto (Japanese zither). Born and raised in Japan, Mika began studying the Yamada-ryu school of koto music at the age of eight under the guidance of Master Tokumitsu Satoki, then later explored the Ikuta-ryu style with Master Bernice Kisako Hirai. Since moving to Maui 25 years ago, she has shared the timeless beauty of Japanese music through performance and teaching.

Brigitte (Gigi) Leilani Axelrode will perform dance compositions that explore collaborative formats—including a pairing with the shakuhachi and an activation with sibling Angelique (Ang) Kalani Axelrode, whose projection-mapped visuals will illuminate the gallery’s exterior walls. A hapa Kanaka ʻŌiwi artist, educator, and scholar, Gigi has worked professionally in Los Angeles as a concert and commercial dancer and is now based on Oʻahu, developing choreographed movements with the intention of art as liberatory storytelling with and for Pasifika peoples and beyond. Ang is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, and founder of aka productions, with a practice rooted in Kanaka ʻŌiwi and multiracial lineage that spans filmmaking, interactive performance, and new media.

In the adjacent Yokouchi Pavilion & Courtyard, DJ SKUBI will be spinning atmospheric and retro-vibe beats throughout the evening. DJ SKUBI [Gregg Kaplan] is a Hawai‘i-born visual artist and sonic selector whose sets blend ambient, dub, post-punk, jazz, and electronic music into evolving atmospheres of tone and space. Food and beverages will be available for purchase for outside dining and social mingling.

ACTIVATIONS is open to all ages. Entry to the event is free, with ticketed reservations required via the MACC Box Office through mauiarts.org. Tickets are now available.

About the Exhibition

Satoru Abe: Reaching for the Sun was organized by and premiered at the Honolulu Museum of Art in 2024 before traveling to MACC this year, marking the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work on Maui. Satoru declared that “for me, life started… in 1948, when I said I gon’ be an artist.” From there, he charted a prolific career and became one of the most recognized artists throughout Hawaiʻi. Co-curated by HoMA curators Katherine Love and Alejandra Rojas Silva, this exhibition brings together a selection of over 70 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the Honolulu Museum of Art’s permanent collection as well as from public and private lenders.

Born in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, in 1926, Satoru Abe attended McKinley High School before heading to New York in the late 1940s to study at the Art Students League. Upon returning to Hawai‘i, he and six other Asian American artists founded the influential Metcalf Chateau group. Satoru resided in New York from the mid-1950s to 1970, where he was exposed to the dominant Western art movements of Abstraction, Expressionism, and Surrealism, influences which he incorporated into his own unique style of Modernism.

In 1970, he moved back to Hawaiʻi permanently, becoming a fixture of the local arts community with frequent solo exhibitions in Honolulu and numerous awards and honors throughout his career. He consistently produced work in both two- and three-dimensions, shifting between paint, wood, and metal in his explorations of recurring themes and motifs of rocks, seed forms, roots, and trees—whose armlike branches reach outwards to the sun or moon.

Satoru Abe passed away in February 2025 at the age of 98, leaving a legacy of over seven decades of work and a distinguished career that continues to impact art and artists in Hawai‘i and beyond.

The exhibition runs until Nov. 22. Schaefer International Gallery is open from Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and also before select Castle Theater shows. Admission is free.

Satoru Abe: Reaching for the Sun is organized by the Honolulu Museum of Art and co-curated by Katherine Love and Alejandra Rojas Silva. This presentation is in partnership with Maui Arts & Cultural Center, with support provided by the Masaru and Shirley Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation and County of Maui – Office of Economic Development.