COURTESY THE HONOLULU BIENNIAL FOUNDATION
The Honolulu Biennial Foundation has named Leland Miyano the first recipient of its Golden Hibiscus Award, a $10,000 unrestricted cash prize that is given to an artist or collective participating in the biennial, whose inaugural edition opened last week and runs through May 5.
Miyano was selected by a jury composed of Fumio Nanjo, the director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; Christine Y. Kim, associate curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Konrad Ng, executive director of Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu; and Isabella Ellaheh “Bella” Hughes, an independent curator and critic.
Miyano is a Hawaii-based artist, and he received the award for his commissioned piece, Huaka’i / A Wake, (2019), which takes the form of a double-hull canoe constructed with invasive plants found in Hawaii and other materials.
An honorable mention award of $1,000 goes to Hawaii-based artist Bernice Akamine for her work Kalo (2016–).