Hawaii arts festival announces artist lineup

Contemporary art from Hawaii and the Pacific region will get another moment to shine starting in February, when ­Hawai‘i Contemporary, formerly the Hawaii Biennial Arts Foundation, mounts its third exhibition.

The organization will display the work of 43 prominent artists and artist collectives from around the Pacific region, including Hawaii, at seven venues throughout Honolulu in “Hawai‘i Triennial 2022: Pacific Century — E Ho‘omau no Moananuiakea.” The exhibition will “explore themes of history, place, social activism, environmental change, and Indigenous knowledge within the context of Hawai‘i’s unique location at the confluence of Asia-Pacific and Oceania,” the organization said in a release.

The artists and collectives on display will include Ai Weiwei, perhaps the most well-known dissident Chinese artist, whose multimedia pieces have commented on his political travails; Richard Bell, an Aboriginal artist who has called himself the “enfant terrible” of Australian art; and Japanese artist Momoyo Torimitsu, whose work has featured robots symbolizing “corporate soldiers.”

Among the Hawaii artists in the exhibition are Herman Pi‘ikea Clark, whose alohawear features rustic geometric shapes rather than flora and fauna; and activist Haunani Kay-Trask, working with photographer Ed Greevy, who documented many of the protests by the Save Our Surf movement in Hawaii.

The arts festival will run Feb. 18 to May 8 at the Bishop Museum, Foster Botanical Garden, Hawaii Theatre Center, Hawai‘i State Art Museum, Iolani Palace, Honolulu Museum of Art and Royal Hawaiian Center. For more information, visit hawaiicontemporary.org.