Named A Living Treasure of Hawai'i, David Kuraoka is Professor of Art Emeritus at San Francisco State University, where he taught for more than 40 years and was head of the ceramics program for more than two decades. He holds a Doctorate of Art from SFSU and Masters of Art from San Jose State University. Early art influences included immersion in the minimalist movement. As a young artist he completed academic and studio requirements for degrees in painting, sculpture and ceramics. He chose to focus his Master of Arts studies in ceramics. He was awarded a PhD by SFSU for his research and development in Americanizing raku, where he subjected his simple elegant forms to raku and primitive open pit firing. David organized 15 large annual beach firing events in northern California and helped transplant the event to Hawaii, organizing the first Raku Ho’olaule’a in 1976. His work is abstract and his style simple, clean and crisp, “California Slick."

Tom Lieber, a painter of large, fluid abstractions, according to Carter Ratcliff, is an artist whose work “invites us to note how complex the act of looking becomes when we attend carefully to its pleasures.” Based in Los Angeles and Kaua`i, Lieber is an internationally recognized abstract painter. His work is contemplative, subtle in configuration and color, and powerfully emotive. A recipient of a national endowment for the arts grant, his work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, SFMoMA, Tate Gallery London, and The Margulies Collection.

more photographs soon

DAVID KURAOKA

Color Rings Column

Mission Clay Building Products Co stoneware, extruded, underglaze,

glaze

80 x 9.5 inches (28 rings)

DAVID KURAOKA

Color Rings Column

Mission Clay Building Products Co stoneware, extruded, underglaze,

glaze

80 x 9.5 inches (28 rings)

TOM LIEBER

Pewter Strout

oil canvas

80 x 70 inches