Artists Rae Penzin and Kaho’okele Napuahinano will be in Mormors Café during Museum Late Night for the opening of the exhibit Living Legacy. Appetizers with Swedish flavors will be for sale during the event.
This display, featured in the Swedish American Museum’s inviting Mormors Café, showcases the work of two artists, Rae Penzin and Kaho’okele Napuahinano, whose work reflects on the cultural traditions and values of their ancestors in Sweden and Hawai’i respectively. This show brings together two unique and distinct artists who have both found a home in Chicagoland, an area that has a rich history and continuing legacy of being enriched and inspired by immigrants and the cultural traditions that they share. We invite you to ponder, along with the artist, what it means to form and be formed in many parts of life, to embody and build upon the legacy of one’s ancestors.
About the artists:
Rae Penzin, 92, has been drawing and painting since childhood. Although she is primarily self-taught, over the years she has taken specialized classes in Iowa, Wisconsin, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has produced works in oil, pastel, casein, colored pencil, watercolor, and acrylics, and is currently concentrating on the techniques of origami and embroidery. A longtime member of the Park Ridge Arts League, Rae has exhibited her work throughout Park Ridge and nearby communities. Being of Swedish heritage, Rae’s mother exposed her to many Swedish influences and traditions throughout her childhood. She was encouraged to be conscious of the beauty and uniqueness of all things, and how they keep changing before our eyes.
“It’s all there – all we have to do is learn to see it!”
Kaho’okele Napuahinano is a fourth generation Kanaka born and raised in Chicago, IL. She is of both Hawaiian and Scandinavian descent. After returning from a year in Hilo, Hawaii late 2019, following the Ka ʻAha Hula ʻO Halauaola (World Hula Conference) of 2018, Hinano came home to Chicago even more so inspired by her people, land, and culture. In 2022 she started ‘Hinano By Design’ as a means to help preserve Hawaiian culture through her artwork. Having worked with printmaking, painting, digital artworks, and clay, she creatively brings Kanaka ideas to more contemporary outlets. Working with traditional Hawaiian art forms such as lauhala weaving, feather work making Kāhili, lei making, and Kapa, Hinano keeps her ancestors' arts alive. Hinano is a co-curator of the, “Chicago’s Legacy Hula”, exhibit at the Field Museum of Chicago with the partnership of the Aloha Center of Chicago, where she honors her family’s legacy of Hula and tells the story of how Hawaiians and Hula came to Chicago 134 years ago.