Hawaii Contemporary

Hawaii Contemporary Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Hawaii Contemporary, Nonprofit Organization, PO Box 4636, Honolulu, HI.

We are a cultural collaborator and presenter of Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 ( ), the state's largest, thematic exhibition contemporary art from Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and beyond. OUR MISSION

Inspired by the histories of Hawai’i, a gathering place for diverse peoples and ideas, Hawai’i Contemporary presents a multi-site contemporary art exhibition every three years. The Hawai’i Triennial, an interna

tionally recognized arts festival, connects artists from across our islands united by the great blue continent, the Pacific Ocean. Year-round educational and community engagement programs and artist development initiatives affirm our commitment to creating a global, accessible hub for contemporary art in Hawai’i nei.

🌟 Join us for an intimate conversation about the art, life, and legacy of the late Rocky Ka‘iouliokahihikoloʻEhu Jensen ...
10/23/2025

🌟 Join us for an intimate conversation about the art, life, and legacy of the late Rocky Ka‘iouliokahihikoloʻEhu Jensen (1944–2023), whose work is included in Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 (HT25) and is on view at Capitol Modern. A passionate advocate for Native Hawaiian artists, Jensen is widely considered one of the most significant Native Hawaiian contemporary artists of the last century. His daughter, Natalie Mahina Jensen; filmmaker and friend David Kalama; and HT25 co-curator and friend of the Jensen family Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu gather to explore the artist’s work, the challenges he faced, and his lasting impact on Native Hawaiian contemporary art. RSVP requested: https://bit.ly/471N0To

📅 THUR | 30 OCT 🕠 5:30PM–7PM
📍Capitol Modern | 250 South Hotel St | Second Floor
🅿️ Parking | Ali‘i Place

is on view thru 06 Dec 2025.

🌺🫶🏾 Mahalo to the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA) () for helping us honor the spirit of ALOHA NŌ through the work of our HT25 artists.

06/19/2025

🌊 “When you chose [ALOHA NŌ], I was so proud and grateful—because that is the energetic field that will transform the world.”—Kanaka 'Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) philosopher Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer

As winds down, we’re reflecting on the resonant words of Aunty Manu, who delivered the keynote at our Art Summit 2024. She reminded us that aloha is not just a word—it’s a practice. ALOHA NŌ is truth in action. It’s the pulse of joy through sorrow, the bond between people and place, and the invitation to reimagine how we show up—for each other and for the land.

For Aunty Manu, indigenizing spaces means embracing whole-system thinking, moving beyond binaries, and grounding ourselves in a spirit of joy and resilience. “Joy begets joy, begets joy, begets joy” she says, "but we have to get through the sorrow, to get to that joy."

▶️ Revisit her powerful keynote and consider how HT25, from start to finish, has been a call to engage Hawaiʻi with care, reverence, and responsibility. While much of the Triennial has closed, part of the exhibition continues at Capitol Modern through Dec 6. And, the work of aloha nō continues, as always. youtube.com/watch?v=fFlVI8dLNlo&t=1443s

06/04/2025

✨Step into ceremony, stillness, and story.✨ Join us for the closing evening of "ʻUmeke Lāʻau – Culture Medicine" by artist Meleanna Aluli Meyer and Team ʻUmeke (Kainoa Gruspe, Amber Khan, et al), this Friday at Honolulu Hale.

📍 Honolulu Hale (Honolulu City Hall)
🕖 Friday, June 6 | 7–9pm
🚙 Street parking or at the Civic Center Garage
🆓 Free and open to all | RSVP here: bit.ly/HT25HonoluluHaleClosingCeremony

This closing gathering invites us to reflect, remember, and return—through a powerful experience of sound and light with projectionist Alec Singer and mele by Starr Kalahiki .

Rooted in ancestral wisdom, ʻ"Umeke Lāʻau" is a sculptural vessel of care, calling us to confront historical wrongs and reconnect through culture, healing, and place. The monumental calabash holds space for visitors and groups to gather, meditate, and converse, inviting them to experience contemporary art as medicine.

As the work prepares to relocate to Kapolei Hale, this is your last chance to witness it at Honolulu Hale. Come honor this moment of transformation, community, and aloha.

This closing event is hosted by the Honolulu Mayor’s Office on Culture and the Arts (MOCA) (Honolulu Mayor's Office of Culture and the Arts ) in collaboration with Hawai’i Contemporary. 🤝🌺🫶🏾

Can art hold space for healing? In Hyperallergic, writer and curator Stephanie Smith explores how , ALOHA NŌ, makes vis...
06/01/2025

Can art hold space for healing? In Hyperallergic, writer and curator Stephanie Smith explores how , ALOHA NŌ, makes visible the ways art can respond to place and the historical, connecting cultural tradition to the present moment, while cultivating new possibilities for interconnectedness, collective responsibility, and acts of care. 🌺🌊

📰 Read the full review: bit.ly/HT25Hyperallergic

05/31/2025

What does solidarity across oceans look like? In "barullo a la orilla," Afro-diasporic siblings Las Nietas de Nonó explore shared struggles between Puerto Rico and Hawai‘i through performance, memory, and movement. Using string figures and ancestral storytelling, they reveal how land, resistance, and ecological care connect these two archipelagos shaped by colonial legacies. hawaiicontemporary.org/ht25-artist-las-nietas

Don’t miss your ✨LAST CHANCE✨ to experience this evocative video performance at HT25 HUB—open through today, Saturday, May 31, only!

🌺🫶🏾 Mahalo to the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and Hawaiian Airlines for helping us honor the spirit of ALOHA NŌ through the work of our HT25 artists.

📸 Las Nietas de Nonó, "barullo a la orilla," (2025). HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center. Photos by .

05/30/2025

A collective rooted in connection, culture, and community: 🌱 Taro Patch Creative 🌱

Founded by the Mafile‘o sisters—Vea, Emily, and Elizabeth (Bubzie)— artist collective Taro Patch Creative brings together artists, researchers, and facilitators to uplift Indigenous and Pasifika voices through storytelling and shared creative practice.

For HT25, they collaborated with Native Hawaiian filmmaker Pākē Salmon and her Wai‘anae Moku communities on O‘ahu’s West Side to explore ALOHA NŌ in all its beauty and vulnerability. Through this collaboration, they’ve cultivated a space of reflection, care, and creativity—symbolized by young kalo, or taro, a living reminder of what must be nurtured and protected.

As an installation, "Taro Patch 2.0 Hawai‘i" is imbued with Pasifika living culture—amplifying 💛 community voices and inviting you into an informal hangout space shaped by connection, storytelling, and care. 📍On view at HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center through May 31. Swing by, sit, and stay a while, listening to voices from Wai‘anae talk story with you. 🌊✨ hawaiicontemporary.org/ht25-artist-taro-patch-creative

🌺🫶🏾 Mahalo to the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts for helping us honor the spirit of ALOHA NŌ through the work of our HT25 artists.

📸 Taro Patch Creative. "Taro Patch 2.0 Hawai‘i," (2025). HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center. Courtesy of the artist. Photo

💥Your lunch hour just got a glow-up. Our FREE ✨Lunchtime Tours at HT25 HUB✨ are your chance to step into a space of refl...
05/29/2025

💥Your lunch hour just got a glow-up. Our FREE ✨Lunchtime Tours at HT25 HUB✨ are your chance to step into a space of reflection, resistance, and rebirth. Through the lens of ALOHA NŌ, the theme, discover how contemporary art reclaims aloha as a powerful force of care, truth-telling, and cultural resilience.

These are your final days to view the HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center (which closes this weekend, 31 May).

🕛 12–1pm daily
📍HT25 HUB, Davies Pacific Center | Meet at the 2nd Floor
🔗 RSVP requested but feel free to stop by: bit.ly/HT25Programs

🙏🏽 HT25 docent-led tours are made possible, in part by, Hawai'i Council for the Humanities.

05/23/2025

“We prepare kapa in life the same way that we prepare for death—with love and care.”— artist Nanea Lum

Where kapa (Hawaiian bark cloth) touches canvas, memory breathes 🌫️🎨.

Lum’s work for HT25 moves through dream, time, ceremony, and love. Rooted in Maunalua Bay and shaped by the process of kapa-making, the artist's oil and acrylic paintings express the quiet intimacy of learning, creating, and honoring Hawaiian practices.

Kapa here is more than material—it’s a ceremonial act, a shroud of remembrance, and a gesture of aloha ‘āina. Through both abstraction and representation, Lum reveals how care becomes resistance, and how the hidden protects what is sacred.

📍Visit HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center—on view through 31 May 2025—to sit with these stories—held in paint, cloth, and spirit. hawaiicontemporary.org/ht25-artist-lum

🌺🫶🏾 Mahalo to the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts SFCA) for helping us honor the spirit of ALOHA NŌ through the work of our HT25 artists.

📸 Nanea Lum, “Kapa in my dreams” (2023), “Me ke ao” (2025), “Huna kāua i ke kapa” (2025), “I ka pō” (2025). HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center. Courtesy of the artist and Hawai'i Contemporary. Photo Duarte Studios

The largest, thematic contemporary art exhibition in Hawai‘i— —is winding down. We're closing the HT25 HUB at Davies Pac...
05/22/2025

The largest, thematic contemporary art exhibition in Hawai‘i— —is winding down. We're closing the HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center with music, poetry, and creative workshops. Join us on Saturday, May 31, to celebrate the final day of HT25 HUB with a FREE, ʻohana-friendly gathering rooted in the spirit of ALOHA NŌ. Register in here: bit.ly/HT25HUBClosingParty

🎤 Poetry by HT25 artist Brandy Nālani McDougall
🎶 Live performances presented by Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design: T.J. Keanu Tario + Maria Ka'iu
🎨 Hands-on workshops: Zine making with , screen printing with Honolulu Printmakers + HT25 designs, snail origami with HC—inspired by HT25 artist Hayv Kahraman's work, and apo lima (lauhala bracelet) weaving with Keanahala
🍩 ʻOno bites from Baton a Manger, Cool Beans Coffee Stop & madrechurrosandcacao

📅 Saturday, May 31 | ⏰ 11am–2pm
📍 HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center | 841 Bishop St | 2nd Floor
🅿️ $5 flat rate at First Hawaiian Bank (Merchant St)

05/17/2025

Thousands of pink petals—wilted, windblown, and frozen in time. 🌸💨

In "Graft" (2021), Allora & Calzadilla evoke the quiet tension of environmental fragility and colonial legacy. Each flower, hand-cast and painted to reflect various stages of decay, speaks to the long-term consequences of human impact on Caribbean ecosystems.

Working across performance, sculpture, sound, video, and photography, artist duo Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla—based in San Juan, Puerto Rico—use a research-driven practice to unravel the deep entanglements of ecology, geopolitics, and material culture. Their work challenges us to see beauty in crisis and to recognize the precarity of biodiversity in a region shaped by systemic depletion.

Experience "Graft" in person and let the stillness move you.📍On view at HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center through 31 May 2025. hawaiicontemporary.org/ht25-artist-allora-calzadilla

🌺🫶🏾 Mahalo to the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA) for helping us honor the spirit of ALOHA NŌ through the work of our HT25 artists.

📸 Allora & Calzadilla, "Graft," (2021). HT25 HUB at Davies Pacific Center. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery. Photo Duarte Studios.

📹 🎞️ Witness the power of wāhine shaping Hawaiʻi’s cinematic future—one frame at a time. On Thursday, May 22, join us fo...
05/17/2025

📹 🎞️ Witness the power of wāhine shaping Hawaiʻi’s cinematic future—one frame at a time.

On Thursday, May 22, join us for an evening with Reel Wāhine of Hawaiʻi, presented in collaboration with Hawai'i Women in Filmmaking. This special screening honors the wāhine who’ve laid the foundation for Hawaiʻi’s film industry—and those redefining its future.⁣

Featuring the voices and visions of HT25 artists Tiare Ribeaux, Sancia Miala Shiba Nash, and Meleanna Aluli Meyer, along with filmmaker Chaunnel “Pākē” Salmon—a collaborator on HT25 art collective Taro Patch Creative’s featured work—this evening uplifts intergenerational stories rooted in land, justice, and memory.

📍 HT25 HUB | 841 Bishop St, 2nd Floor
🕔 Doors at 5pm | Screening starts at 5:30pm
🔗 RSVP now—free and open to all: bit.ly/HT25ReelWahineofHawaii
🚗 Parking at First Hawaiian Bank | $5 after 5pm

Come for the films, stay for the dialogue—connect with the artists and community members shaping Hawaiʻi’s cinematic future. 💬 ✨

Doors are closing ✨ Stories are staying ✨ Be part of the last HT25 chapter.For over 78 days across Oʻahu, Maui, and Hawa...
05/17/2025

Doors are closing ✨ Stories are staying ✨ Be part of the last HT25 chapter.

For over 78 days across Oʻahu, Maui, and Hawai‘i Island, invited audiences into something deeper than art. With ALOHA NŌ, we asked: What does it mean to truly know and practice aloha? This is about truth-telling. About embracing the kaona (layers) of aloha. About love of land, ancestors, and each other. About storytelling and healing. About centering Hawai‘i’s history and futures—together.

is on view through:
📍 May 31 | HT25 HUB
📍 June 6 | Honolulu Hale (Honolulu Mayor's Office of Culture and the Arts)
📍 June 28 | Donkey Mill Art Center
📍 Dec 6 | Capitol Modern
📍 Beyond | HT25 x Wahi Pana: Storied Places: Lē‘ahi, Fort DeRussy, Fort Street Mall

🌺 Come see for yourself. Stand in it. Feel it. Witness what remains. Carry what you learn forward.

Plan your experience: hawaiicontemporary.org/plan-ht25

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PO Box 4636
Honolulu, HI
96812

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