Lehuauakea

(Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) | American, born 1996)

Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli / Native Hawaiian) creates craft-based art that includes large-scale sculptures, hybrid installations, traditional canvas paintings, and Native Hawaiian craftwork. In their own words, "I aim to address subjects of mixed identity and cultural erasure, Indigenous resilience, and ecological decline through a contemporary Hawaiian lens." Lehua breathes new life into the labor-intensive traditions of making of 'ohe kāpala (carved bamboo stamps), kapa cloth, and natural pigments. Kapa is the traditional Native Hawaiian barkcloth, a non-woven textile made from the bark of specific trees.

Lehuauakea is a māhū mixed-Native Hawaiian artist from Pāpa'ikou on Moku O Keawe, the Big Island of Hawai'i. They earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting with a minor in Art + Ecology at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. The artist is based between Portland, Oregon, and Pāpa'ikou (Hawai'i).