New year, new mediums: Guam artists reflect on beginnings at ‘I Tutuhon’ exhibit

"Keeping an Eye Out" by Monica Baza

By Ron Rocky Coloma

Visitors entering the Guam Museum Café Gallery are greeted by an exhibit that feels quietly experimental. “I Tutuhon,” which translates to the beginning, brings together artists reflecting on fresh starts, long paths and the small shifts that happen when creative work meets a new year.

For Drew Ippoliti, an associate professor of art at the University of Guam, the show marks a personal reset.

“The work in this exhibition is a new beginning,” he said, explaining that collage has become a way to sketch ideas without drawing. His three works use found magazine images to explore humor, power and balance.

“The biggest hope for the work is that it gets the viewer thinking,” Ippoliti said.

Monica Dolores Baza’s pieces look outward. Working in blockprint mixed media and painting, she presents four works that return attention to the environment and the sea.

“All the pieces are a take on awareness of the surroundings we sometimes take for granted,” Baza said, citing works such as Octopus Refuge and Flying Proa of Micronesia. She said she continues to search for new ways to experiment while staying true to her voice.

Photographer Victor E. Consaga III brings mood and movement into the space. His images layer multiple exposures of floral scenes and textures from the same locations.

“By combining images, it gives more of a mood or sense of the place,” Consaga said. He added that a growing number of artists has helped create more chances to show work on the island.

Painter and sculptor Dawn Lees Reyes contributes pieces that span decades of exploration. Some works in the exhibit represent first attempts with new materials or concepts.

Dawn Lees Reyes

“Each of them becomes a beginning for me,” Reyes said, noting experiments with silk painting, mixed media and themes of the feminine experience. She said sharing older works allows viewers to see how her practice has evolved.

Reyes also highlighted the behind the scenes work that makes the exhibit possible. “She has taken on full responsibility for the curation,” Reyes said of assistant curator Alyanna Barrera, who she credited for guiding artists and mentoring interns.

Together, the artists frame “I Tutuhon” as less about arrival and more about motion. The exhibit invites viewers to linger, notice and consider what beginnings can look like when they are already in progress. It reflects a community learning, experimenting and starting again together this year locally.

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