HONOLULU.- Honolulu Biennial 2017, organized by the Honolulu Biennial Foundation (HBF), announced today the formal title and dates for the inaugural edition of the multi-site, contemporary visual arts festival. Titled, Middle of Now | Here, the Biennial will run from March 8 through May 8, 2017 throughout various locations within the city. Additionally, the Honolulu Biennial announced the appointment of Ngahiraka Mason as Curator for the event. Mason previously served, for more than 20 years, as Curator of Indigenous Art, Maori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She joins the Biennial’s Curatorial Director Fumio Nanjo, Director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, in developing the vision and experience, and in selecting participating artists.

Local Hawai’i-based and Native Hawaiian artists will be featured alongside emerging, midcareer, and leading national and international artists from the countries and continents linked by the Pacific Ocean, giving the Honolulu Biennial a distinctive focus within the global trope of biennials. Several of the featured artists were announced earlier this year, and include MAP Office (Hong Kong); Brett Graham (New Zealand); Les Filter Feeders (Hawai‘i); Charlton Kupa'a Hee (Hawai‘i); Fiona Pardington (New Zealand); Yuki Kihara (New Zealand/Samoa); Mohammed Kazem (U.A.E.); Andrew Binkley (Hawai‘i); and Yayoi Kusama (Japan). The full list is in formation, and will be announced in the fall.

Taking place in a variety of historic, public, cultural, and urban spaces, the initial list of exhibition sites was announced today and includes: Honolulu Hale (city hall), Foster Botanical Garden, and McCoy Pavilion, provided through in-kind, co-sponsorship with the City of Honolulu, Mayor’s Office for Culture and the Arts, and Department of Parks and Recreation; the Arts at Marks Garage and Pegge Hopper Gallery located in historic Chinatown; and Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. Additional exhibition sites and partners will be announced later this fall.

Supporting Nanjo and Mason on the curatorial advisory board are scholars Dr. Greg Dvorak, Dr. Katherine Higgins, and Dr. Margo Machida, with Dr. Dvorak also serving as Tokyo advisor to Nanjo.