There is no architect in this world whose life story and work are so out of the norm and so exceptional as the 1995 Pritzker Prize winner Mr. Tadao Ando. Born in 1941 and raised by his great grandmother, he became a certified boxer at age 17. On a trip to Tokyo in junior high, he was struck by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel and found his calling. While boxing professionally, he attended evening drawing classes, took interior design correspondence courses, and studied masters of modernist architecture on his own. From 1992 and on, Benesse Corporation president, Mr. Soichiro Fukutake, commissioned Ando to design art museums on the islands of Seto Inland Sea, in an effort to revive the diminishing population and worsening environment caused by the dumping of industrial wastes by major companies. Their visionary collaboration created Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, a hotel annex, and Chichu Art Museum complex, with the latter dedicated to works of Claude Monet and two contemporary artists. Starting in 2010, with Kagawa government’s partnership, Mr. Fukutake launched the first Setouchi Art Triennial. By this time, the once devasted islands had become an art destination attracting millions of domestic as well as foreign tourists.

The short films will help us appreciate the self-taught architect who continues to design museums in the Seto Inland Sea even after having five internal organs removed in 2009 and 2014 due to pancreatic cancer.

His works can are concentrated in Osaka area but are also found in S. Korea, Taiwan, US, Canada, France, Germany, China, Switzerland, Itay, and Australia.

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with the Society of Asian Art!

Join us for a delicious banquet at Jade Dynasty Seafood Restaurant, featuring a presentation on Inner Mongolia's cultural heritage and landscapes by Cyndy Ning, former Associate Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at UH Mānoa.

Her presentation shows how China chooses to share its Intangible Cultural Heritage with visitors, as well as the results of its recent phenomenal development. Inner Mongolia is renowned for its landscapes, encompassing grasslands, deserts, lakes, and forests. To a large extent, it preserves the legacy of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, as well as the cultures of nomadic herders and ethnic Mongolians. 

Calling all art enthusiasts! Start the new year with an enriching experience!

The Society of Asian Art invites you to a special banquet and lecture featuring Allison Wong, a renowned art expert and former leader at Hawai'i Contemporary and the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Allison will share her firsthand experiences and insights from the Gwangju and Busan Biennials, the Frieze Seoul art fair, and visits to galleries and artist studios in Seoul.  This is a unique opportunity to learn about the latest trends in Korean contemporary art from someone with deep knowledge and passion.

Event Highlights:

-Delicious dim sum lunch at Hawaii Dim Sum & Seafood Restaurant

-Engaging lecture by Allison Wong

-Opportunity to connect with fellow art enthusiasts

“The past is gone, the future is not here, now I am free of both. Right now, I choose joy.” - Deepak Chopra MD

Join New York Times bestselling author Deepak Chopra as he guides you on how to wake up to new levels of awareness that will ultimately cultivate a clear vision, heal suffering in your mind and body, and help recover who you really are.

• Are we in the midst of a major paradigm shift in science?

• How does our understanding of consciousness as pure potentiality enhance our capacity for intuition, creativity, conscious choice making, healing, and the awakening of dormant potentials such as non local communication and non local sensory experience?

• How does our understanding of consciousness also enhance our capacity for total well being (physical, emotional, spiritual, social, community, financial and ecological)?

• In the midst of widespread trepidation, what are the new goals that each of us might start pursuing right now?

Chopra will address these questions as well as practical ways to experience transformation and healing.