PRIMAL FIGURE

Hiroki Morinoue (born 1947) is an American artist of Japanese descent who has helped to pioneer in the United States the fusion of western Impressionism with modern Japanese design. Morinoue was born in Kealakekua and raised near Holualoa, formerly a major coffee plantation town, now an artist colony, in the mountains above Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. Morinoue studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Later, while in Japan, Morinoue studied with a master sumi-e artist and a master of sculpture and woodblock printing. Morinoue lives in his family’s ancestral home in Holualoa. His sculptural work shows a trend towards abstract art, experimentation in warmer palettes, and rougher surfaces, various subject matters and media such as ceramics and photography. Hiroki Morinoue can be seen in several public and private collections in the USA (particularly in Hawaii) and Japan. We acquired this piece from the artist during a visit with him in Holualoa.