Lehuauakea is a Native Hawaiian interdisciplinary artist and kapa maker from Pāpaʻikou, Hawaiʻi. With a particular focus on the labor-intensive making of kapa (bark cloth), ʻohe kāpala (carved bamboo printing tools), and use of natural pigments, Lehua is able to breathe new life into patterns and traditions practiced for generations. Through these traditional Native Hawaiian craft practices, their work addresses themes of environmental relations, Indigenous cultural resilience, and contemporary Kanaka Maoli identity. Lehuauakea has spent the last several years learning from well-known barkcloth maker Wesley Sen of Moanalua, Hawaiʻi, who trained in barkcloth-making with Pua Van Dorpe, Beatrice Krauss, Malia Solomon, Carla Freitas, and Dennis Kanaʻe of Hawaiʻi, and Mary Pritchard of Sāmoa. Through these intergenerational land-based practices, Lehuauakea aims to build on this tradition and ultimately share it with the next generation to ensure that this mode of Indigenous storytelling is carried well into the future. Furthermore, as part of the Native Hawaiian diaspora in North America, Lehua is committed to helping other Kānaka with similar experiences connect to their culture away from home and find empowerment in their own heritage.

Lehuauakea’s work has been shown in exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is held in many prominent collections around the globe, including Portland Art Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Forge Project, and Museum of International Folk Art, amongst others. The artist is currently based between the continent and Pāpaʻikou after earning their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting with a minor in Art + Ecology at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

EDUCATION

2018

Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting / Minor in Art + Ecology; Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR

2017

Semester Exchange Program — Arts University Bournemouth; Poole, England

SELECT SOLO EXHIBITION

2024

I Nā Kiʻekiʻe Hou | To New Heights, Central Washington University; Ellensburg, WA

2019

Until We Meet Again, Blackfish Gallery; Portland, OR

A Thirst For Saltwater, Fuller Rosen Gallery; Portland, OR

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITION

2025

Hawai‘i Triennial 2025: Aloha Nō (forthcoming)

Prayer / Pattern / Prayer, Morgan Lehman Gallery; New York City, NY (forthcoming)

2024

Slow Water, Cara Romero Gallery; Santa Fe, NM

Wai Ulana: Woven Waters, Hecho a Mano; Santa Fe, NM

He Ehu, He Pōhaku | Of Mist and Stone, East Hawai‘i Cultural Center; Hilo, HI

Bark Rhythms: Contemporary Innovations and Ancestral Traditions, Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking; Atlanta, GA

8 x 8 2024, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art; Honolulu, HI

2023

NGV Triennial 2023, National Gallery of Victoria; Melbourne, AUS

Fluid Gaze, 516 Gallery; Albuquerque, NM

sis: Pacific Art 1980-2023, Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA); Brisbane, AUS

‘Ai Pōhaku, University of Hawaiʻi; Oʻahu, HI

Our Shared Breath: Community and Creativity, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art; Eugene, OR

He‘e Nalu: The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing, Heard Museum; Phoenix, AZ

‘Ike Kānaka, Maui Arts and Cultural Center; Kahului, HI

2022

Where the Waters Come Together, Center for Native Arts and Cultures (NACF); Portland, OR

2021

Mesh, Portland Art Museum; Portland, OR

Joint Ecology, Waterstone Gallery; Portland, OR

2020

He Hae Hōʻailona Ia, Aupuni Space; Honolulu, HI

2019

Yəhaw̓, King Street Station; Seattle, WA

2018

Recent Graduates Exhibition, Blackfish Gallery; Portland, OR 

AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, FELLOWSHIPS, and SPECIAL PROJECTS

2024

Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship, Nominated Artist

Summer Think Tank program, Lunder Institute of American Art; Waterville, ME

2023

AAPI Civic Engagement Fund ‘Creative Catalyst’ Fellow

Partner artist through Museum of International Folk Art, 19th Annual International Folk Art Market; Santa Fe, NM

2022

LIFT Grant Recipient, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation; Portland, OR

ARTiculated podcast project, Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution

AANHPI Heritage Month Featured Artist, Human Rights Campaign

Meta (Facebook) Open Arts Installation; Bellevue, WA

2021

INS[PI]RED Artist Fellowship, Burke Museum and the Pacific Islander Community Association of Washington

Dubin Native Artist Fellowship + Residency, School For Advanced Research; Santa Fe, NM

Golden Spot Award + Residency, Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts; Pendleton, OR

2020

Native Artist Fellowship, Nia Tero Foundation; Seattle, WA

Support Beam Grant, Regional Arts and Culture Council

Native Artist Apprentice with mentor artist Brenda Mallory, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation

2019

PLAYA Residency; Summer Lake, OR

R.I.S.E. Art + Poetry Fellowship - Lead Recipient, Radical Indigenous Survivance and Empowerment

Centrum Foundation Residency; Port Townsend, WA

2018

Lawrence Duckler New Arts Award, Blackfish Gallery

Abraham and Anna C. Helman Thesis Award; Thesis Paper Award; Painting Department Award; Pacific Northwest College of Art

G. Douglas Byers Memorial Fellowship, Signal Fire Arts

Signal Fire: Wide Open Studios; Four Corners region, USA

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

“Seven Directions,” First American Arts Magazine Issue 43, Summer 2024

“The Fibers That Connect Us,” Native American Arts Magazine Issue 44, Apr./May 2023

“Mentorship and Matriarchy,” Native Arts and Cultures Foundation blog, May 2022

“Two Kapa Artists On the Power of Hana Noʻeau,” FLUX Hawaiʻi, Spring/Summer 2022

“The Queer Indigenous Artists Reclaiming a Fluid Sense of Gender,” The New York Times, Feb. 2022

“Teaming up: Crow’s Shadow & Hallie Ford Museum of Art,” Oregon ArtsWatch, Feb. 2022

“Kapa-Making as a Way of Being: A Conversation with Lehuauakea,” School for Advanced Research blog, Aug. 2021

“In Portland show, Indigenous contemporary artists take space and take back the conversation,” The Oregonian, Nov. 2021

“Meet the artists of ‘Mesh, using their work to give voice to contemporary concerns,” The Oregonian, Nov. 2021

“10 Queer Indigenous Artists on Where Their Inspirations Have Led Them,” The New York Times, Apr. 2021

SELECT PUBLIC ART + COLLECTIONS

Meta (Facebook) Open Arts

Forge Project Collection

Portland Art Museum

Chief Seattle Club

Washington State Art Collection

City of Portland Portable Works Collection

Microsoft Art Collection

Hallie Ford Museum of Art

National Gallery of Victoria

Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art

Chapman University, Escalette Permanent Collection of Art

Portland State University

Syracuse University

Yale University

Museum of International Folk Art

CURATORIAL

2020 DISplace, with co-curator Kanani Miyamoto, Five Oaks Museum; Portland, OR