Abigail Romanchak
Pilina
Woodblock, Sekishu Paper, Ko (Sugarcane) Ash, Alae, Etching Ink, Graphite Powder, Shellac
Dining Room

Artist Statement
Native cultures are jeopardized once they stop speaking to people in present day. The expressive freedom of printmaking allows me to communicate my deep personal feelings about rapidly changing cultural and natural landscapes. After experiencing the recent devastating fires on my home island Maui, I have been thinking more about traditional land tenure and the importance of ecological interdependence in Hawaiʻi. ʻPilinaʻ honors the traditional land divisions, moku of pre-contact Hawaiians. The natural contours of the Hawaiian Islands along with specific resources located within these moku remind us of the importance of Indigenous resource management practices necessary to protect the land and its people.

When asked to respond to the theme “source,” “ola i ka wai”— water is life— is what comes to mind for me.

Abigail Romanchak

Abigail Romanchak is a printmaker and educator whose work has been shown nationally and internationally. Her work belongs to many public and private collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Australia National Museum, the White House, the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum. In 2015, Abigail was awarded the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation fellowship. This fellowship made it possible for Abigail to produce a new body of work for a group exhibition, ”Aloha ʻĀina” at the Lower Saxony State Museum, Hanover, Germany; Galerie Rasch, Kassel, Germany; and Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany. Abigail was a Joan Mitchell Fellowship nominee in 2016. Most recently, Abigail was invited to be a visiting artist at Mullowney Printing Company in Portland, Oregon where some of the work for 8x8 was printed in collaboration with master printer Paul Mullowney. Abigail holds a BFA and MFA in printmaking from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has held teaching positions at Punahou School, The Hui Noʻeau Visual Arts Center, the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, the Contemporary Museum and Honolulu Museum of Art.