In Hawaiʻi, Ralph Iwamoto is well known for his later minimalist abstractions. This summer, the Honolulu Museum of Art presents a rare look at an earlier moment in his career, with seven paintings from 1955 on loan from the Vilcek Foundation. 

These works reveal a brief but compelling engagement with Surrealism. During this period, Iwamoto worked in New York City at a shop that sold objects and flowers from Hawaiʻi. His paintings are replete with floral reminders of his native land, combining heliconia, orchids, and other plant forms with skeletal components, set against flat backgrounds reminiscent of Japanese prints. The hybrid creatures are similar to those found in Cuban artist Wifredo Lam’s The Jungle (1942–43).