Trio of artists debuts new show Friday in Hilo

The Hawaii Museum of Contemporary Art will feature artists Rick Ryken, Julianna Ziegler and Steve Irvine at a gallery opening at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. The trio’s art will be on display June 7-25. Admission is free.

Ryken’s art consist of oil paintings which are largely mythical in scope relying on graphic elements and often suggest a “Fauve” flavor. Although Ryken has only been painting for a few years, his style is both strong and personal. The work lends itself to storytelling and as one takes the time to engage in the works the fantasy only deepens through his interplay of the primitive and the sophisticated elements in his paintings.

Ziegler’s art revisits the Renaissance Classical drawing with her own interpretation using gray scale values on textured grounds. Ziegler who is considered a fine drafts-person, brings an ephemeral sensibility to her drawings. Her work is composed of delicate lines, smudges and shapes invoking the temporary state of human existence both as body and as species. There is no urgency here in her work but a transcendent calm as if peace has been made by the artist with her own existence. To quote Ziegler, “The people I draw will never again exist in exactly the same form from which they were drawn, for they will age and eventually perish.”

Irvine, artist of “From Spirit to Paint,” was born in Los Angeles and moved to Hawaii in 1968 inspired by the lush nature of the islands. Irvine’s style spans a variety of influences, combining strong academic training with textural passages, abstract notations, and thematic shifts while maintaining a strong hold on the mythical while referencing the real. His art over the years has become increasingly complex and colorful as he embraces the tropical pallet of the islands on exhibit in the Makai Gallery.

Gallery hours are: Tuesday-Thursdday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday.