Sergio Garzon is a Colombian-born, internationally educated artist whose current show of monumental scale prints in "Lower Kaimuki" inaugurates the most recent addition to Hono­lulu’s diverse body of art spaces: Ektopia ("out of place" in Greek).

Significantly, Ektopia is one of a small number of galleries built from the ground up to support the presentation of art on its own terms in a noncommercial context. Director Allan Jim is opening an urgently needed avenue for contemporary artists in Honolulu, encouraging them to "think big," and Garzon readily takes advantage of this invitation.

He displays two versions of each print, plus the original wood block. Each is roughly 10 feet tall by five across, and presented in the vertical scroll format of a Chinese landscape painting. Taken together and read left to right, each triptych takes the viewer from the print’s conception (in wood) to its birth (in black and white) to a kind of maturity elaborated in full color.

This strategy is an open revelation of the artistic process or an idea’s evolution, but these are not proof prints or "alternate takes." One is meant to contemplate them as a whole and continuous effort. In the blocks we are able to see the strength and expression of Garzon’s hand meeting the grain of the wood and the contrast of the ink. There is an undeniable power in the traces left by the tool that gouges, scrapes and stipples. With matrix and prints displayed side by side, their relationships go beyond demonstrating variation or "before and after." Like a game of three-card monte, the eye tracks and maps Garzon’s gestures forward and backward through time, and across the virtual mirrors that exist between them.

In several examples Garzon uses this invisible mirror effect to reflect, exchange and mingle the indigenous landscapes, atmospheres, traditions and cultures of Colombia and Hawaii.

His rendering of ‘Iao Valley on Maui expresses an incredible visual density that captures the dynamic and interactive intensity of river, stone, forest and the history woven into it by people. Not a direct representation, Garzon embeds human figures, cats and a wide range of other undisclosed surprises in the precise curves, and clean and layered rhythms of line and darkness that characterize his style.

In black and white this rendering of the landscape is striking, approaching the overwhelming feeling of having your eyeballs filled with nature.

Color in the second print adds another dimension, tastefully applied to bring out overtones of moss, shadows, sun dapple, windblown grass and roots weaving between stones.

To the right of the ‘Iao landscape is another iteration of Garzon’s approach, a triptych of a huge arapaima fish. This living fossil is native to many South American rivers and plays a key role in male rites of passage for Garzon’s indigenous culture, the Chibchas.

Rendered at near life size (Google it!) and echoing Asian traditions of fish prints and carp portraits, the arapaima makes several appearances in the show. Garzon balances the intricate details of the fish’s body, and two sections of underwater vegetation, against a pure emptiness. In the block, what ends up white on paper is a richly textured field of removed wood, its grain and varying depths evoking water in motion, bending and refracting light.

In the back of the gallery is a small, narrow room where Garzon has installed a river in the sky: prints of arapaima and other fish hung from the ceiling and clustered in a fluttering cloud that evokes those moments in nature shows where river life swarms around the diver’s camera. Three stunning fish blocks — each cut with a different technique — are hung here, along with a slightly incongruous series of metal etchings featuring frolicking nudes. Though by no means unsuccessful, the unity of the giant prints and the sculptural iteration they take is clearly coming from a different current of the artist’s creative flow.

This is a strong debut for Ektopia, for Garzon’s work certainly functions as potentially collectible fine art, offered at a dazzling level of visual generosity and accessibility.

But Jim explains that this is also about the community. The foot traffic from nearby schools passes in front of the gallery, and the boldly colored address numbers in the windows will grab the attention of those on a mission to Longs or Times; some might even remember when the building was a kim chee factory.

Ektopia’s presence creates a fine new overtone in Kaimuki, one that resonates with a future of the arts that isn’t entirely dependent on tourism, institutional guidelines or nightlife.