Acts (V) | Gouache and Colored Pencil on Paper | 22" x 30" | 2012

Acts (V) (Detail) | Gouache and Colored Pencil on Paper | 22" x 30" | 2012

Artist Statement: In these works, drawing progresses close to the pace of nature and akin to transposing the language of crochet instructions to another manifestation. They are translations of items that never existed in their final documented form. The works ask for the consideration and gratitude given a first attempt blanket filled with mistakes but completed and gifted despite its flaws. Overt in their construction and economy, value is embedded into each drawing through insistent work ethic and a corresponding interior experience. Kawabata’s work refers to engagement in acts of the hand, serving as a metaphor for the endless line of small productive tasks that are the armature of communities in the face of larger, more powerful un-doings.

Wendy Kawabata received her MFA from the University of New Mexico, and is Associate Professor of Art at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in Honolulu. Wendy is the recipient of a 2012 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and has presented her work in numerous national and international exhibitions. Her work has received recognition from national and international publications including: Art in America, Modern Painters, The New Yorker, Artweek, and NO Magazine (NZ). She is represented by Sanderson Contemporary Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand.