It’s hard not to smile at Bonhui Uy’s work. The 82-year-old Chinese-American artist’s deceptively simple, brightly colored designs—grimacing animals with wide eyes, houses with toothy grins—bring out the child in those who view his work. “I’ve never even owned a pet,” Uy says. “I love [portraying] animals because their faces are all so different. Birds are so different from a tiger or an ant. The type of animal just comes to me.”
The sense of fun in his art belies Uy’s intensity and discipline, honed by his work as an architectural designer and illustrator in Taiwan, New York, the Philippines and Hawaiʻi. Born in the Philippines, Uy graduated as an architectural engineer in Taiwan and came to New York in 1965, where he attended Pratt Institute. He moved to Hawaiʻi in 1972, helping to design the distinctive Ward Warehouse shopping mall. When he became a partner in the architecture firm Media Five in the mid-1970s, Uy began sketching what he saw around him, including his family, street scenes and landmarks like Iolani Palace, as a way to decompress from the stress of his career. Several of these charming sketches survive on bar napkins the artist has kept for all this time. Others are included in his first book, Architectural Drawings & Leisure Sketches, self-published in 1978.
The sense of fun in his art belies Uy’s intensity and discipline, honed by his work as an architectural designer and illustrator in Taiwan, New York, the Philippines and Hawaiʻi. Born in the Philippines, Uy graduated as an architectural engineer in Taiwan and came to New York in 1965, where he attended Pratt Institute. He moved to Hawaiʻi in 1972, helping to design the distinctive Ward Warehouse shopping mall. When he became a partner in the architecture firm Media Five in the mid-1970s, Uy began sketching what he saw around him, including his family, street scenes and landmarks like Iolani Palace, as a way to decompress from the stress of his career. Several of these charming sketches survive on bar napkins the artist has kept for all this time. Others are included in his first book, Architectural Drawings & Leisure Sketches, self-published in 1978.
The world of artist Bonhui Uy (SEEN IN ARTICLE FEATURED IMAGE) is, above all, fun—a counterweight to his work as an architect designing some of Honolulu’s well-known buildings. (ABOVE) Uy’s playful “Gorilla,” a sculpture of sheet metal and acrylic paint. PHOTOGRAPH BY TRACY CHAN
Sending out that little book changed Uy’s life. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York ordered fifty copies, it inspired him to explore fine art. Returning to New York, Uy set up a studio, providing illustrations for notable architects. When he wasn’t working, he was sketching, painting and creating collages. As architectural jobs dried up with the recession of the early ’90s, Uy got his first solo art exhibition in Taipei in 1993, followed by many more art shows in both Asia and Hawaii, including a major retrospective at Downtown Art Center in Honolulu last March.
Energetic as ever in his retirement, Uy now spends his time sketching on his iPad, creating fantastical 3D creatures in his workshop and experimenting with his signature style in different media. He’s also completed a large-scale public works project on Oahu, a series of playful public murals on the basketball court at Cartwright Neighborhood Park in Makiki. “When you are practicing [architecture] or designing, you are constrained. Now I am totally free,” Uy says. “Nobody’s going to tell me good or bad; this is how I think, and this is what I’m going to do. I like art that’s fun and playful … that’s all.”
bonhui.com
Energetic as ever in his retirement, Uy now spends his time sketching on his iPad, creating fantastical 3D creatures in his workshop and experimenting with his signature style in different media. He’s also completed a large-scale public works project on Oahu, a series of playful public murals on the basketball court at Cartwright Neighborhood Park in Makiki. “When you are practicing [architecture] or designing, you are constrained. Now I am totally free,” Uy says. “Nobody’s going to tell me good or bad; this is how I think, and this is what I’m going to do. I like art that’s fun and playful … that’s all.”
bonhui.com
