Hawaii-based artist draws inspiration from the islands and the Gold Country of California

HONOLULU—The Honolulu Academy of Arts presents a survey of work by acclaimed Hawaii artist Fred H. Roster from 1969 to the present day. Known for his wood, clay, bronze, and assemblage sculptures, his work is included in the collections of the Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, The Contemporary Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The solo exhibition will be in the main gallery of the museum’s Academy Art Center at Linekona.

Roster’s work is an integral part of Honolulu’s built landscape, from the sculpture Atoll, Toll, Total in the Honolulu International Airport to the bronze portrait of Gov. John A. Burns at Aloha Stadium.

The prolific artist has also helped shape the artistic landscape of Hawaii as an educator for more than 40 years, first at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, then at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he is now a professor of art and Chairman of the Sculpture Program.

Many of Oahu’s noted young artists have been influenced by Roster. “‘Just imagine all of those passing thoughts and ideas that never become realized,’ Fred said to me once while discussing a project I was working on,” says artist Aaron Padilla, a past Roster student. “He urged us to consider everything, and not discount that silly idea and the mindless sketch. If we followed those paths, our art would be better because of it.”

In addition, Roster is a co-founder of the acclaimed triennial traveling International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition, which mixes small-scale works by big names such as Wenda Gu, Tony Smith, Ruth Asawa, and George Rickey with emerging artists both regional and international.

Born in Palo Alto, Calif., Roster had recently completed his Masters of Arts at San Jose State University when he came to Hawaii on his honeymoon—and decided to stay. “Hawaii seemed like the future,” says Roster, explaining what attracted him to the islands.

Roster’s affinity for nature is apparent in the selection of materials found in his work, especially wood. While in Tasmania for a year, teaching at the University of Tasmania at Launceston, he found a giant felled log that he began shaping into a canoe. He shipped it to Hawaii where he completed carving the 12-foot-long vessel. “It is a radiata pine,” says Roster, a tree native to the West Coast. “That means the seedling probably came down from California 100 years ago.” He also explains that 100 years ago, before the advent of power tools, the radiata pine’s profusion of branches made it impossible to work with. It’s the kind of narrative that fascinates Roster. “I like to reexamine traditions and traditional materials from a contemporary perspective and with new tools.”

Many of his works have a rambling story like this behind them, a connection of dots fostered by a deep knowledge of the natural world, personal history and art.

Another example is the mango, a recurring element in Roster’s art. When he started his graduate studies at the UH Manoa in 1969, fellow students “took it upon themselves to introduce me to local culture,” recounts Roster. “We went by a common mango tree and they said ‘That’s a mango tree, you can eat those.’” When he later spotted another tree, he picked a mango and bit into it like an apple—his friends had failed to tell him how to eat the fruit. “I got the worst mango rash,” says Roster. “It really bit back. It taught me that Hawaii wasn’t all sweet plumerias and offered creative challenges. Being in a place of new and different cultures is very fertile. I am fascinated by material culture. My aesthetics have been influenced by travel, Hawaii’s admixture of cultures and our proximity to Asia, in particular Japan. This understanding through materials lends insight to life in Hawaii.”

The fruit inspired Roster to create a pictographic language—Mangonese—which will be on view in the exhibition in two works, a bronze sculpture and a high relief.

Every summer Roster returns to his family home in Angels Camp, California, where he cuts wood, works on a lathe and carves stone in a barn. “California still feels familiar to me after more than four decades of being away,” he says.

The property, in the heart of Gold Country, is riddled with mining debris and the echoes of the lives of Italian immigrants who settled in the area, drawn by the gold rush. The mosaic of eras, industry and culture imbedded in the landscape has influenced the artist’s recent work. He is fascinated that he can find arrastras—rudimentary ore grinders—and pick feral figs and grapes. This layering of eras can be seen in the assemblage Remnants of the Plant Manager’s Life, which features a wheel with figures as spokes. “It has to do with how we try to work with the passage of time,” says Roster.

It Seemed Like The Future: Works by Fred H. Roster, 1969–2010
Academy Art Center at Linekona
September 3 to 26
(808) 532-8700