“The Enduring Wiliwili,” an exhibition featuring the Pacific Island Printmakers

“The Enduring Wiliwili” by the Pacific Island Printmakers: August 29 – October 4, 2015

Volcano Art Center Gallery will be displaying the artwork of Andrea Pro, Margaret Barnaby, Lisa Louise Adams, Kathy Molina and John McCaskill who together make up the Pacific Island Printmakers in an exhibit titled The Enduring Wiliwili. The exhibition features the wiliwili, one of Hawaii’s threatened species also known as Erythrina sandwicensis, which is a type of floweringtree that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands.

For the exhibition the Pacific Island Printmakers partnered with the Waikoloa Dry Forest Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to reforesting a lowland dry forest preserve near Waikoloa Village.  The preserve is home to several endemic and indigenous plant species including iconic trees such as the wiliwili and the uhiuhi.  Their goal is to bring the dryland forest of Waikoloa back to life through natural resource conservation, restoration and community education and participation.  Through the Waikoloa Dry Forest Initiative’s outreach and education efforts the five participating artists were taken into the field where they studied and sketched the few remaining wild wiliwili trees firsthand.   The artists then approached Volcano Art Center with a show proposal from that experience.

“This exhibition is a great example of community partnerships”, states gallery manager, Emily C. Weiss. “Three separate organizations all with one shared goal, to build awareness and conservation efforts of the wiliwili trees.   I find it very exciting to see five different perspectives of one subject matter.  One artist will focus on the beautiful blossoms, which colors range from orange, yellow, red or white, while another depicts the birds that help pollinate the species. Each image, however, represents the stately silhouette which is undeniably the wiliwili, weaving a visual thread through the entire collection.”   In the Hawaiian language, wiliwili means “repeatedly twisted” and refers to the seedpods, which twist open to reveal the seeds.

The Enduring Wiliwili will be on display from 9am to 5pm daily beginning August 29th – at the Volcano Art Center Gallery inside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The exhibition is free to the public though park entrance fees apply.  The artists will be present at an opening reception on Saturday, August 29^th from 5 to 7pm.

A guided walk of the Waikoloa Dry Forest Preserve is scheduled for Saturday, October 3rd.  This event is free although registration is required.  Please call Volcano Art Center Gallery at (808) 967-7565 for details and to register for the free guided tour.  Transportation is not included, but car pooling may be an option.