Founded by the late artist and teacher Kate Whitcomb, the 9 x 7 Group has been exhibiting since 1980. The latest show at Gallery 'Iolani, off the ground-floor lobby of the Paliku Theatre, has taken place every two years for the past two decades.

This year's understated installment features pieces that whisper, never shout.

And yet something about the show recalls the maxim, "To perceive one and the same thing is tantamount to perceiving nothing." Or perhaps, variety is the spice of life.

As you enter the space, only one piece grabs attention: Reiko Mochinaga Brandon's handsome fiber wall hanging "Tied Separation," made of cotton and indigo-dyed shibori. (Shibori is a tie-dye-like method of dyeing fabric.)

Brandon became interested in traditional Japanese indigo materials and techniques in the 1980s while working as a curator of textiles at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Her research led her to Japan, where she observed traditional methods of making the dye. Today, she has developed her own voice using the techniques she learned.

By contrast, her smaller, intimate pieces under plastic glass cases, such as "Pair," explore a common theme in the show: delicacy and subtle craftsmanship. "Pair" visually echoes Greek myth's Penelope weaving and unweaving a shroud for the eventual death of her father-in-law Laertes, patiently buying time until Odysseus' return.

The most accomplished work is Denise DeVone's suite of acrylics on round canvases. Individually notable for their complex designs, skilled draftsmanship and well-balanced color, the paintings also have a collective presence, almost like frozen musical variations on a theme.

Linda Gue's extremely well-done wood pieces in her "Leaf and Seed Pod" series likewise display on the one hand a firm grasp on craft while suggesting an almost surreal dimension of the subconscious.

Jinja Kim's whimsical postcards that she made and mailed while traveling in China and South Korea, have an autobiographical element that resonates with universal significance of the global village.

Prints in Laura Smith's "Journey to the Unknown" series were similarly inspired by the concept and shapes of letters and envelopes, "vehicles of communication over oceans, over time," as she puts it, "between people far from each other, and between generations."

Her woodcuts, displayed in an extended accordion book, began with a wartime 1943 letter. Smith found the missive's simple language matched an already existing woodcut about a marriage proposal. The second theme, the idea of the marriage proposal, stretched into a portfolio of prints: "What She Took With Her." The items that could be packed in the suitcase are printed on pages from an old atlas, evoking exotic travel and perhaps a romantic honeymoon.

Fabric artist Elizabeth Train shows recent acrylics. Created after the passing of a loved one, the works are well-meaning but extremely literal, literary and cliche, invoking a Robin Williams Hollywood vision of the afterlife without breaking through to a deeply personal, authentic level.

Faring less well in the context of the show is printmaker and painter Bobby Crockett's pieces under glass, which are less accomplished in terms of color and design.

In the soothing gallery, tucked under the wing of a grand theater nestled at the foot of the Ko'olaus, George Winston music plays while rain caresses the campus. Perhaps the setting is too soothing. As interesting and well done as many of the works are, the space and art is too restful to engage and challenge this viewer. Art that doesn't dare to push a viewer's comfort zone risks becoming an opiate, not essentially bad, simply underdeveloped.

The exhibition also demonstrates the limitations inherent in work created by a small circle that has worked together for years, resulting in a kind of groupthink.

Unless the delicate calm is sometimes shattered by provocateurs and truth-tellers, art ceases to be a vehicle not only for beauty but also for shamanistic possession and revelation.

David C. Farmer holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and drawing and a master's in Asian and Pacific art history from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.