By Margaret Kearns
Modern Luxury Hawaii, October 2009
Hawai‘i’s art world got a little bigger with the late-summer opening of galerie 103, a museum-quality exhibition space that is absolutely unique to the state of Hawai‘i, according to internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Tom Lieber. Fueled by her intense passion, the gallery’s creator and curator, Bruna Stude, brought together a cross section of work from established and emerging contemporary and modern artists from around the globe for the debut shows including “Generations,” an exhibition of works by Peter Bodnar, 80; Tom Lieber, 60; and Leaf Leiber, 10.
“Te response has been amazing, the caliber of artists who have provided pieces is overwhelming,” Stude says.
An accomplished artist whose work has been featured at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and Te Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, Stude says she wanted something extra special in the gallery to capture how she feels about art. She found her feelings perfectly expressed in a quote by contemporary artist William T. Wiley: “Don’t be afraid of being right or wrong about art...the art won’t mind. Be afraid of not feeling very much.” To her excitement, Stude was able to convince Wiley to create an original piece for the gallery based around that quote. Wiley’s mixed media original will be the focal point of the gallery’s permanent collection.
“What more can I say about a man who was busy putting together a collection of art representing a nearly 50-year career for his retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (on display October 2, 2009 through January 24, 2010) and yet stopped to create an original piece for a small, unknown gallery in the middle of the Pacific?” Stude asks.
Located at the new Kukui‘ula Village on Kaua‘i, the 2,400-squarefoot space has 1,600 square feet devoted to the contemporary art gallery and an 800-square-foot annex (deemed galerie+) dedicated to modern and contemporary works on paper, small art objects and art books. Exhibits in the contemporary gallery will rotate every one to two months, depending on the importance of the work, while galerie+ will be extremely fluid, current and alive, with objects and art changing frequently. It also will serve as the venue for impromptu special events throughout the year, according to Stude. “Early this week I had a meeting with a young choreographer,” she says, her internal wheels clearly spinning. “I would like to have performance art as well - choreographed to fit a narrow/deep stage...It is still just a dream right now, but I will find a way to make it happen.”