Arakawa's

Arakawa’s
2024

Arakawa’s was created for Solario’s Greenroom Gallery solo exhibition, Hawaiʻi ’70, which celebrated the places, objects, and visual culture of the 1970s—an important decade in Hawaiʻi’s recent past.

A fixture of Waipahu from 1909 until 1995, Arakawa’s grew from a small plantation-era business into a beloved family-owned general store serving generations of local families. Its famously packed aisles offered everything from clothing and household goods to tools and fishing gear, making the store as much a community institution as a place to shop.

The composition pairs the distinctive Arakawa’s building with palaka, the checked fabric closely associated both with Arakawa's and Hawaiʻi’s plantation workers and later embraced as an enduring symbol of local working-class culture. 

Arakawa’s
Old Depot Road · Waipahu, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi · Opened 1909 · Closed 1995
2024

Museum-quality giclée print on archival velvet fine art paper, presented with a pure white mat and individually hand-signed by Solario.