‘Emptiness and Form’ exhibit underway at VAC

The Volcano Art Center is hosting a fine art exhibition, “Emptiness and Form,” at the Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus now through June 7.

The exhibit accompanies the 17th annual meeting of the Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle, a conference hosted by the Humanities Division at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

The exhibition features invited artists from both the U.S. mainland and Hawaii Island sharing artistic explorations of the theme “Emptiness and Form.”

The three-week exhibit will be open for viewing 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at VAC’s Niaulani Campus (19-4074 Old Volcano Rd. ) in Volcano Village. A closing reception with both artists and philosophers present will occur from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, June 7.

The mixed-media exhibition, co-curated by Tim Freeman, associate professor of philosophy at UH-Hilo and Emily C. Weiss, director of development and galleries at VAC, features original paintings, prints, sculptures and ceramics by prominent visual artists who intrinsically express the relationship between emptiness and form through their works of art.

As stated in Freeman’s invitation to the participating artists, “A wheel-thrown vessel begins by introducing emptiness in the centered lump of clay, and the final form of the vessel is shaped by the emptiness within the form. The first line in a drawing, or the first application of color in a painting, introduces the complementary interdependence of emptiness and form. Whether one is standing before a blank canvas, an unhewn block of wood, or a solid lump of clay, the possibilities are endless, and the artist’s first move is an imposition of form. Without emptiness, there would be no form.”

Volcano Art Center is a nonprofit organization created in 1974 whose mission is to promote, develop and perpetuate the artistic, cultural and environmental heritage of Hawaii through arts and education. For more information call (808) 967-8222.