Ephemeral Beauty- 2027 Juried Art Exhibit

Kahilu Exhibits seeks artwork for our 2026 Juried Art Exhibition, Ephemera Beauty. This exhibition will be on view January 14, 2026 through February 28, 2027 in Kahilu’s Simperman and Suli T. Go Galleries in Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island.

Guest Juror, Andrzej Kramarz (Gallery Director - East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center, Hilo), invites artists to submit artworks that investigate the quiet paradox at the heart of our relationship with flowers.

There is a quiet paradox at the heart of our relationship with flowers. They are among the most fleeting things in nature—blooming, fading, and falling within days—and yet no other living form has been so permanently woven into human civilization. Ephemeral Beauty invites artists to sit within this paradox: to consider how something so temporary has come to carry the weight of our deepest emotions, our economies, our myths, and our understanding of what it means to be alive. What follows is meant to reveal how broad this subject can be, and to spark directions you might not yet have imagined.

We are, it seems, made to notice flowers. Long before they became symbols, they were signals—markers of fertile land, of water, of the harvest to come. This ancient attentiveness lingers in us still. A single bloom placed in a sterile hospital room whispers to something older than language, telling us that life thrives here. Artists might begin with this instinct alone—tracing how a biological reflex blossomed into one of humanity's most universal forms of expression.

Across every culture on Earth, people arrived at the same conclusion: that these brief, beautiful things are worth cherishing—and worth speaking through. In Greek myth, flowers sprang from the blood of the dying. In Buddhist thought, the lotus rose unstained from muddy waters as the emblem of the awakening soul. In the Hawaiian moʻolelo of ʻŌhiʻa and Lehua, two lovers separated by a jealous goddess are reunited only through transformation—one into a gnarled tree, the other into its red blossom—so that to pluck the flower is to part the lovers, and the sky weeps rain in response. These stories reveal a shared human impulse: to see our own longing, loss, and love reflected in the life of a flower.

It feels especially meaningful to hold this conversation here, in Hawaiʻi, where nature is not a backdrop but a living, powerful presence. On these islands, fragility and force exist side by side: blossoms cling to the rims of volcanoes, and beauty grows directly out of raw creation. To reflect on the ephemeral among landscapes so vividly alive is not incidental to this exhibition—it is, perhaps, its truest home.

For the flower is, above all, a mirror. It buds, blooms in glory, and fades—an unavoidable rehearsal of our own passage through the world. This is why the same blossoms attend both our weddings and our funerals, why the cherry blossom embodies mono no aware, the tender ache of impermanence, and why the Victorians built floriography, a secret language, so that a flower might say what the heart could not.

And there is a more intimate register we should not overlook. A flower is, after all, a plant's sexual organ—all fragrance and color and unfurling petals designed to attract. Human eyes have never missed this. O'Keeffe's luminous blooms became icons of sensuality; the lotus and the rose have long symbolized erotic love. Here, too, the ephemeral matters—for eroticism, like the bloom, lives in the charged brevity of its perfection.

It is worth remembering that beauty has never been innocent of power. The Dutch "Tulip Mania" of the 1630s produced humanity's first speculative bubble, and centuries of colonial "economic botany" turned plants into imperial commodities. That inheritance persists in today's floral trade—a global industry worth tens of billions, its supply lines running from equatorial fields to the auction floors of the Netherlands.

Flowers have healed us, too. They filled the oldest pharmacies of Egypt, India, China and Hawaiʻi, and endure in modern medicine: digoxin from the foxglove, morphine from the poppy, artemisinin defeating malaria. They have adorned us across millennia—from Cleopatra's rose baths to the jasmine fields of Grasse—and remain the fragrant heart of perfume, where thousands of blossoms are pressed into a single gram of scent.

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A note on what we are seeking:

All approaches are welcome. We do not exclude representational work—a floral still life can be as powerful as the most abstract installation. What will most shape this exhibition, however, is originality of interpretation: work that engages with the flower's meaning—its memory and metaphor. Across any medium, we invite you to respond to the idea of the flower as much as its image.

Ephemeral Beauty asks you to hold all of this at once: the fragile and the powerful, the sacred and the commercial, the healing and the mournful. In the end, we cherish flowers not despite their impermanence but because of it. Look closely, and quickly—the blooms are already changing, and we hope you will show us what they mean to you.

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Curator guidance for Artwork Statements

An artwork statement should offer insight into the ideas behind the work rather than describe what viewers can already see. Begin by including the title and medium. Then explain the artwork’s central concept, context, references, or inspiration. You may discuss personal experiences, cultural or historical influences, social concerns, research, or questions that informed the work.

Focus on the meaning and intentions behind the artwork: What led you to make it? What ideas does it explore? Why is the subject important to you? What might you invite the viewer to consider?

Avoid giving a detailed account of the process or listing visible elements such as colors, shapes, objects, or composition unless they carry a specific, less obvious meaning. The statement should add a deeper layer of understanding without dictating exactly how the work must be interpreted.

Keep the language clear, specific, and accessible. Avoid overly academic or complicated terms, general statements, and unnecessary repetition. A strong statement is usually 100–250 words and should reflect your own voice.

About the Juror:

Andrzej Kramarz is an artist, educator, curator, and editor of photography books. Previously he was chairman of Imago Mundi Foundation (2005-2010); Deputy Art Director at the Photo Month in Cracow (2006-2008). He had been also involved in the Photo Proxima research project carried out by the Ethnographic Museum in Cracow in collaboration with the Fratelli Alinari Museum of Photography, studying private collections of family photographs. He lectures on photography at University of Hawaii and Hawaii Community College. Author of books; Rzeczy (Things) and Invisible Maps. Kramarz currently serves as Gallery Director at East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center in Hilo.

Submission Fee

$25 for first sample
$5 for each additional media sample 

Artists will still be responsible for shipping their artwork to and from Kahilu. (See Shipping info below)

Eligibility:

Artists must be 18 years of age or older to submit artwork.

Important Dates:

Deadline for artwork submissions: Monday, December 7, 2026 at 11:59 PM HST

Artists notifications will be made via email by Monday, December 21, 2026

Shipped artwork must be received by Wednesday, January 6, 2027

Artwork can be dropped off in person Saturday, January 2; Monday, January 4; or Tuesday, January 5, 2027

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 14, 2027 from 5-7pm

Artwork must arrive to Kahilu Exhibits ready for installation with appropriate hanging hardware and professional presentation.

Artists 18 years of age and older are welcome to submit artwork for review.