CURRENT AND FUTURE EVENTS

Upcoming Events

• September 10, (Friday) - 7pm-10pm - Below, Above and Beyond - John Hawaka Solo Exhibition

September 10th, 2010 - "Below, Above and Beyond" - John Hawaka Solo Exhibition

Exhibition duration: September 10 - September 30, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, September 10 @ 7:00pm
Curators: Melissa Torro and Julianna Ritter

This exhibition is supported by the New Brunswick Jazz Project and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
LIVE Jazz Music by Abe Ovadia (guitar)

Alfa Art Gallery is honored to kick-off a brand new exhibition season with a solo show by one of its finest artists, John Hawaka.  Hawaka dedicates his exhibition, Below, Above and Beyond, in support for the Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Art Museum's Water project.  Hawaka’s paintings reflect great presence, power, necessity, fluidity and calm in the world, much the way water does.  They bring viewers to a world of color, reminiscent of “flora on the ocean's floor [and] above the waves”, to quote the artist.  Hawaka goes on to say that each of his paintings is open for interpretation, free to sculpt the audience’s ever-changing imaginations like rushing water through a canyon.

 The style of my paintings for this year’s solo show are not much different from those of last year.  [I am using] lacquer based paint on laminate. However, recently, I have been experimenting with different techniques… Upon observing these new pieces, it will be obvious that I have let the paint be the “artist." The challenge now is to let the paint know that I am the artist. 

-John Hawaka

About the artist:

John Hawaka signed with Alfa Art Gallery in 2008 and has brought to New Brunswick a wealth of creativity and skill.  Hawaka is one a very few artists to use lacquer in painting, making his work all the more impressive and rare to see.  Hawaka’s education and art experience is extensive.  He attended Phoenix School of Design in New York and Montclair State University in New Jersey.  Professionally, Hawaka has contributed to dozens of foundations and private collectors in New Brunswick, Princeton, Piscataway and surrounding areas- a local treasure.

About the exhibition:

Below, Above and Beyond refers to the literal physicality of water as well as to the depths of the human soul.  Water is a widespread symbol of life, and in the realm of visual arts can be translated into color and shapes- assembled into an energetic composition.  John Hawaka harnesses the power of water in the true artists’ spirit, allowing his paintings to push one’s imagination and to influence one’s emotion rather than one’s literal understanding.  His paintings shuffle between brilliant works of abstraction and representational works of the sea.  In lieu of Water at the Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, also in New Brunswick,  it would appear that the beauty and essence of water has washed over our community like a wave. 

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