The Board of Directors of Hawaiʻi Contemporary (formerly the Honolulu Biennial Foundation) announced today the full curatorial team for the Hawai‘i Triennial 2022 (HT22), Hawaiʻi’s largest international contemporary art event. The curatorial team, led by Dr. Melissa Chiu, the director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C, is now joined by associate curators Dr. Miwako Tezuka and Drew Broderick. Each brings curatorial and academic expertise to the Triennial, which will be framed around the fluid concept of a “Pacific Century,” interweaving themes of history, place, and identity within the context of Hawaiʻi’s unique location within the confluence of Asia-Pacific and Oceania. Preceding the Triennial, the curators will present a full curatorial précis at the inaugural Hawaiʻi Contemporary Art Summit, a multi-day educational event scheduled for February 2021.
“We are absolutely thrilled to announce the curatorial team and a proposed vision for the Triennial that places Hawaiʻi in a greater spotlight for contemporary art,” stated Katherine Don, acting executive director of Hawaiʻi Contemporary. “Under the direction of Dr. Chiu, we welcome the well-informed input of Dr. Miwako Tezuka, a noted specialist on contemporary Asian art with focus on post-1945 Japan, and artist and emerging curator Drew Broderick, who has previously exhibited within the Honolulu Biennial 2017. The curators bring their own dynamic knowledge on the Pacific region, which will provide local and global audiences with a historically rich art perspective.”
Speaking about the Hawai‘i Triennial 2022 Dr. Chiu stated: “This is a moment of great change, and we intend to take this as a starting point for the Hawai‘i Triennial. Through an exploration of the idea of the Pacific Century, we hope to take account of recent histories that are informing our present but perhaps, most importantly, re-configuring the future. A focus on the Asia-Pacific and how artists are responding to this time are at the heart of our curatorial approach for this important periodical exhibition. I am delighted to be joined by Miwako Tezuka and Drew Broderick, whose expertise will lend great weight to the curatorial theme.”
Dr. Tezuka remarked: “I am deeply inspired by Melissa’s vision and Drew’s knowledge and creative experience. It is my honor to be part of this team. From the curatorial perspective of a ‘Pacific Century,’ we are finding the weight of different histories and exploring the opportunities to illuminate it by new artist commissions and artworks set within various architectural settings across Honolulu. We are looking to activate several public sites and will be working closely with local communities and museums to create experiences that capture the zeitgeist of diverse and intricate conditions.”
Broderick added: “It’s a privilege to be working alongside Miwako Tezuka, under the direction of Melissa Chiu, with support from the Hawaiʻi Contemporary team. It has been meaningful to reflect on the Triennial’s internationally oriented themes as a Honolulu-based artist and curator guided by local and indigenous knowledge. I am committed to advancing stories of intergenerational resistance and interested in the micro and macro geopolitical shifts currently impacting communities, arts and otherwise, across Ka Paeʻāina o Hawaiʻi, Moananuiākea.”
The inaugural Hawaiʻi Contemporary Art Summit is scheduled to take place February 10–13, 2021. Designed as an education event taking place over several days, it will function as a meeting point for all of Hawaiʻi and beyond, connecting artists, thinkers, scholars, cultural workers, students and young people and their families with art and ideas. The Summit is a thematic precursor to the Triennial, which is scheduled to place across various museums and public spaces throughout Honolulu, running from February 18–May 8, 2022.
Hawai‘i Triennial 2022 Curators’ Biographical Notes
Dr. Melissa Chiu is a renowned international curator, who is currently director of Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Among Chiu’s many professional accolades, including serving as museum director and senior vice president, Global Art Programs (2001–2014) at Asia Society in New York, she is recognized for realizing landmark exhibitions by Shirin Neshat, Robert Irwin, Yayoi Kusama, Charline von Heyl, Zhang Huan, Yoshitomo Nara, Sarah Sze, Michael Joo, Dinh Q. Lê, Ah Xian and Cai Guo-Qiang, and co-curating One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now (2006–8) and Art and China’s Revolution (2008). Chiu has authored and edited several books and catalogues on contemporary art, including Contemporary Art in Asia: A Critical Reader (MIT Press, 2010), and has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the Museum of Modern Art, and other universities and museums.
Dr. Miwako Tezuka is associate director of Reversible Destiny Foundation, a progressive artist foundation in New York established by Arakawa and Madeline Gins. Previously, she held the positions of gallery director of Japan Society in New York (2012–15) and curator of Contemporary Art at Asia Society Museum in New York (2005–12). She has curated numerous exhibitions; on Maya Lin, Robert Indiana, Ikeda Manabu, Tenmyouya Hisashi, teamLab, Mariko Mori, U-Ram Choe, Yang Fudong, Chen Chieh-jen, among many others. She also co-curated, with Melissa Chiu, the ground-breaking exhibition Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool (Asia Society Museum, 2010). Tezuka holds a doctorate in post-World War II Japanese art history from Columbia University, and is codirector of PoNJA-GenKon, a global online network of postwar Japanese art scholars and curators.
Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick is an artist, independent curator, and educator from Mōkapu, Kailua, Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu. Currently, he serves as director of Koa Gallery at Kapiʻolani Community College. Recently, he completed an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (2019). Previously, he worked in the Hawai‘i-based art collective PARADISE COVE (2015–2018), operated an artist-run venue SPF Projects (2012–2016), and co-founded an annual open-call, thematic exhibition, CONTACT (2014–2019), with community arts organizer Maile Meyer. Collaborative curatorial projects in development include ʻAi Pōhaku and I OLA KANALOA, with Josh Tengan (Assistant Curator HB19), and Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument as part of a hui of Hawaiʻi-based artist practitioners.
Hawai‘i Triennial 2022 will be held February 18 – May 8, 2022.