Embodied Reverence
Featuring the work of Oʻahu-based artists Roland Longstreet and Shawn Spangler. Running from April 23 - May 28 in Above the Equator’s Hilo project space featuring new works by Longtreet and Spangler, an expanded version of Embodied Reverence will be presented virtually through Artsy.com.
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.
Emerging painter Longstreet’s work is rooted in examining the mystery of the human condition. Longstreet shares that his work, which references gestural abstraction and the legacy of classic portraiture, “a transmission of energy to visually express the inner working of life.” His recent body of work, debuting in Embodied Reverence was created during his 2020 Honolulu residency at Single Double, located in historic Chinatown. Over the past year, his primary focus is capturing presence through the human form and the connection to the metaphysical, unknown realms of the human psyche.
Drawing from an amalgamation of reference points, Spangler, one of Hawaii’s most noted and globally active ceramists, has a practice rooted in reverence and connectivity to history and humanity. Spangler’s work integrates inventive, yet elegant forms with practical functionality through his vessels, tea pots and cups, which can be used as part of daily ritual or presented for display. Working primarily in porcelain, he notes that his wheel thrown works are “a regenerative act ripe with reverence, revealing human hands’ ensuring connection to creativity,” which hint to his reverence for noted periods of ceramic history and innovation of both the Song and Koryo dynasties.
Longstreet and Spangler offer a deft reminder in Embodied Reverence of the enduring inspiration artists have taken through the ages in investigating the human experience and connectivity between the past. Through their creativity, the shapes and forms they produce offer an artist-focused approach of wayfinding where we are going without losing sight of the connectivity between cultures, history and the lived human experience, both real and imagined.
Located in the historic Lau Building, Above the Equator will be open to the public from 12-4PM on April 23 for in-person viewings and virtual visits can be booked by emailing contact@ategallery.com
Embodied Reverence
April 23- May 28, 2021
Roland Longstreet | Shawn Spangler
Lau Building, 184 Kamehameha Ave, Suite 190A
Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720
Virtual programming will be announced later this month.
The Artists
Roland Longstreet
Roland Longstreet is a painter and sculptor based in Honolulu, Hawaii. He graduated from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a Bachelors in Art with a focus on painting and sculpture and a minor in Chinese. In 2016 he helped open ARS Cafe, where under the guidance of John Koga and Lawrence Seward, he helped curate monthly art and music programs with a commitment to supporting the creative community in Honolulu. Most recently, in 2020, Longstreet was the inaugural artist-in-residence through Honolulu’s Single Double Chinatown residency program, run by John Esguerra and Justin Nakasone. His work is focused on exploring the universality of the human condition.
Shawn Spangler
Shawn Spangler's work draws inspiration from craft, industrial design and digital technology. His installation projects raise questions concerning authorship and commodification of objects, highlighting the connections and margins between digital and analog processes of producing ceramic vessels. After attaining his MFA from Alfred University he was a resident artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia PA. Spangler is a founding member of a co-op educational gallery site called Objective Clay. His wheel thrown porcelain forms can be complex, yet clearly articulated, oftentimes created through the combination of multiple parts. The forms are reminiscent of both the Koryo dynasty and Song dynasty, examples he observed as a resident artist in China in 2002. He states, ”My work is an amalgamated map of the world I reflect upon. Producing pottery is a kind of play; a regenerative act ripe with reverence, revealing the human hands enduring connection to creativity. It guides us through stories of our past remaining as a cultural signifier to help us locate where we once were and where we are going."
Noted for his distinct work, Spangler is widely collected and his ceramics can be found in numerous public collections nationally and internationally, including in the The American Museum of Ceramic Arts, Pomona, CA; the Newark Museum of Art. NJ; the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramics, Alfred, NY; Jingdezhen Institute of Art, Museum of Ceramics Art, P.R. China; the John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation Collection, Kansas City, MO; National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, CO; Shiwan Ceramic Museum, P.R. China; The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA; and in the Western Illinois University, University Art Gallery Collection, Macomb, IL.