Above the Equator is a new hybrid gallery with a project space located in historic, downtown Hilo, Hawai‘i. Dedicated to promoting artists working from the countries and cultures near the equator, with a strong focus on artists of Hawai‘i.
Remittance
Above the Equator announces the first solo artist exhibition in their Hilo, HI project space, featuring paintings by Melissa Chimera, running from November 20 - February 2022.
Remittance draws its title and inspiration from the global remittance economy fueled by migrants and immigrants. The works in this show thematically “explore the physical and emotional journeys undertaken by documented and undocumented California and Hawai‘i Filipina/o immigrants,” according to Chimera. In her own words, the “paintings honor migrants supporting multiple generations through their labors abroad while inhabiting the literal and imagined liminal spaces between nations.”
Watermark
Watermark features work by Hawaiʻi Island artists Tallett and Yoshihata, offering visual meditations on water, an abundant, yet increasingly precious resource. Working in a variety of mediums, the artists examine the interconnectivity between water, the natural world, and human experience, deeply connected to place.
Working from the most isolated, populated landmass on earth, the Hawaiian Islands, like many in Hawaiʻi, Tallett and Yoshihata hold multiple relationships with water in its various forms, from the great, blue continent — the Pacific Ocean, to the snow on Maunakea, which is wahi kapu (sacred place), one of the most sacred places for Native Hawaiians. Tallett and Yoshihata offer thoughtful reflections on the multiplicity of relationships humans hold with water in its various forms, rooted in place, Hawaiʻi Island, where both artists are from.
Island Hopper
Noting the need to celebrate interconnectivity between the Hawaiian Islands, Island Hopper celebrates the history of Arts & Letters Nuʻuanu, which for over 30 years was the gallery and studio of renowned painter, Pegge Hopper. By bringing artists from across the archipelago to Chinatown, Above the Equator offers works from: Bernice Akamine (Hawaiʻi Island), Nanci Amaka (Oʻahu), Noah Harders (Maui), Melissa Chimera (Hawaiʻi Island), Shawn Spangler (Oʻahu), Kenyatta Kelechi (Oʻahu), Lauren Shearer (Maui), Keith Tallett (Hawaiʻi Island), Hana Yoshihata (Hawaiʻi Island), Gregg Kaplan (Maui) and Nick Potash (Maui). Shown together for the first time, works range various mediums including: painting, photography, ceramics, floral art and jewelry.
This Moment
With THIS MOMENT passing, the “now” is everything we think, feel and experience through a series of points pieced together, connecting the future and past. THIS MOMENT is a collection of works that document, honor, arrange and link these flashes of time, lending them gravity and allowing us to ponder whether time is an illusion. THIS MOMENT brings together three Hawaiʻi artists, Noah Harders, Kenyatta Kelechi and Lauren Shearer, who share contemporary reworkings of historic techniques ranging from lei to photography.
Embodied Reverence
Embodied Reverence explores the manifestation of the ephemeral in relationship to the evolution of the old masters and the new, the cultivation of our individual awakening, and the human condition.
Not Alone
Very much in response to this moment in humanity, Above the Equator’s first exhibition, Not Alone, offers a timely reminder on the interconnectivity of humanity to the natural world and nonlinear connections between ancestral histories and present realities, both personal and collective.