Home of the Tigers: McKinley High School’s Artist Legacy

A new exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art celebrates the many McKinley High School alumni who have made an impact on modern art.

Phoenix, 1972. Keichi Kimura (American, born Hawai‘i, 1914–1988). Oil on canvas. Honolulu Museum of Art. Gift of Juli Kimura Walters, 2001 (11779.1). Photo: Courtesy of Juli Kimura

Equinox, from the “Floating World” series. Ralph Iwamoto (American, born Hawai‘i, 1927–2013). Oil on Canvas. Honolulu Museum of Art. Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011, and gift of Satoru Abe (TCM.1998.23). Photo: Courtesy of Hollis Taggart, New York.

Geode, c. 1970. Charles Higa (American, born Hawai‘i, 1933–2012). Glazed hand-built stoneware. Honolulu Museum of Art. Museum Purchase (3696.1). Photo: Courtesy of the Estate of Charles E. Higa.

Still Life with Alstroemeria, 1986. Raymond Han (American, born Hawai‘i, 1931–2017). Oil on canvas. Honolulu Museum of Art. Gift of the Persis Corporation, 2002 (11958.1). Photo: Courtesy of Honolulu Museum of Art

The Idol, 1958. Satoru Abe (American, born Hawai‘i, 1926). Welded copper and bronze. Honolulu Museum of Art. Gift of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, Keiji Kawakami Art Foundation Fund, 1992 (6902.1). Photo: Courtesy of Honolulu Museum of Art

Ko‘olau Mountains, 1983. John Young (American, born Hawai‘i, 1909–1997). Oil on canvas. Honolulu Museum of Art. Anonymous gift (5168.1). Photo: Courtesy of The John Young Foundation

In Hawai‘i, one of the most commonly asked questions centers on high school, as if where we went best explains who we are. With this reflection, Tyler Cann, Honolulu Museum of Art’s senior curator of modern and contemporary art, and his wife, Alejandra Rojas Silva, the museum’s works on paper, photography and new media fellow, came up with an intriguing theme for an exhibit.

Home of the Tigers, running Sept. 28 through Jan. 12, 2025, celebrates McKinley High School’s remarkable art legacy, showcasing the diverse works of seven artists who attended Hawai‘i’s oldest public school and the three teachers there who inspired them.

Satoru Abe, John Chin Young, Ralph Iwamoto, Keichi Kimura and Robert Kobayashi—alumni who helped define abstract painting and sculpture in post-World War II Hawai‘i—attended McKinley between the 1920s and 1940s. So did Raymond Han, part of McKinley’s class of 1949, who went on to become a noteworthy still-life painter, while ‘Imaikalani Kalahele, who graduated in 1968, is a renowned Native Hawaiian poet, visual artist, musician and activist. Home of the Tigers also presents works from their late art teachers, Minnie Fujita, Charles Higa and Shirley Russell.

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“You’ll get to see a mini history of art in the 20th and even 21st century, beginning with traditional landscape painting, but moving quickly to abstract painting, and then even pop art,” Cann says. “It’s a real range of work.”

Rojas Silva said the idea for the show came about while the couple were researching artists from Hawai‘i and stumbled upon the common connection to McKinley. “I was like, this is interesting. Why is this happening?” she says. “Then Tyler and I talked about it, and we thought how wonderful it would be to tell a very local story, a story about this community. Even though it’s a funny framework, it’s a great entry to examine modern art of Hawai‘i.”

To assemble the artwork, Cann and Rojas Silva reached out to family members of the artists, as well as those in possession of their art. What they found was overwhelming support for the project. Along with lending works, the sources provided critical information about the artists—details to be included in an accompanying video at the exhibit.

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What Cann particularly loves about the show is that like McKinley, it reflects Honolulu’s deep diversity. “Representation has emerged through the artists in this exhibition,” he says. “You’re going to have a good picture of Hawai‘i.”

Alongside Home of the Tigers, HoMA has plans for a companion exhibit titled Satoru Abe: Reaching for the Sun, from Oct. 17 through July 20, 2025. It will be HoMA’s first retrospective of Abe’s acclaimed seven-decade career.

General admission $25, $15 for kama‘āina, free for members and keiki age 18 and under, open Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., honolulumuseum.org, @honolulumuseum