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    Reviving an Ancestral Hawaiian Tradition, Lehuauakea Reimagines Kapa in Bold Textile Works

    “Since the Beginning and End of Time” (2024), hand-embroidery, bells, and shell buttons
    on hand-stitched indigo-dyed kapa (barkcloth) garment, approx. 50 x 44
    inches. All images courtesy of Lehuauakea, shared with permission

    Reviving an Ancestral Hawaiian Tradition, Lehuauakea Reimagines Kapa in Bold Textile Works

    April 22, 2025

    ArtCraftHistory

    Kate Mothes

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    “My favorite thing about kapa is that it is simultaneously ancestral, ancient, and contemporary,” says Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli), who recently received the Walker Youngbird Foundation grant for emerging Native American artists. Kapa, the Indigenous Hawaiian practice of clothmaking, uses the inner bark of the wauke, or paper mulberry tree, to create garments and textiles. For Lehuauakea, the technique forms the foundation of a practice rooted in the artist’s Hawaiian lineage and material traditions.

    Softening the fibers enough to create cloth requires a labor-intensive method of soaking pieces of bark. Through an arduous process of beating and stretching with tools like the iʻe kuku, a thin, pliable fabric emerges. “It is a very malleable material that reflects the current state of the natural environment, and the surrounding community and personal hand of the maker,” Lehuauakea tells Colossal. “It requires a level of patience and perseverance while also paying close attention to the nature of the bark and pigments you are working with.”

    “Still Finding My Way Back Home” (2025), kapa (barkcloth), reclaimed Japanese fabrics, indigo and madder root dyes, ceramic beads, bells, earth pigments, hand-embroidery, and metal leaf, approx. 18 x 9 feet

    Kapa is derived from ancient Polynesian practices—it’s called tapa in other parts of the Pacific—and Hawaiians elaborated on the custom by incorporating watermarks, natural pigments, and fermentation.

    Traditionally, kapa possessed both practical and spiritual qualities, as it was used for everyday apparel and bedding but also served as a carrier of mana, or healing life force. When the U.S. controversially annexed the territory and the import of cotton amped up in the late 19th century, the practice all but died out.

    Lehuauakea’s interest in kapa emerged when their family relocated to Oregon when they were young. Over time, the artist felt increasingly disconnected from their home and sought a way to conjure a link to their Hawaiian ancestry.

    “I remembered learning about kapa as a child and how we’d use patterns to tell stories, so in my junior year of college I taught myself how to carve ʻohe kāpala, or traditional carved bamboo printing tools used for decorating finished kapa,” the artist says. Then it was onto learning how to make the barkcloth itself, with the help of artisan and mentor Wesley Sen, spurring Lehuauakea’s passion for the medium.

    “Puka Komo ʻEkahi: Portal to Grant Permission” (2024), earth pigments and metal leaf on kapa (barkcloth), 28 x 28 inches

    Fascinated by the potential to not only continue a time-honored Kanaka Maoli art form but also to experiment and push the boundaries of the material, Lehuauakea makes large-scale installations, hand-stitched garments, mixed-media suspended works, and hand-painted two-dimensional compositions— “in other words, forms that you wouldn’t see in ancestral samples of pre-contact Hawaiian kapa,” they say. The artist continues:

    As an Indigenous cultural practitioner and artist, I believe it is important to have a solid foundation in the traditional knowledge of the practice before attempting to expand on it or experiment with more contemporary expressions of the medium because I am not singular in this work; I am simply building on a tradition that was passed down through many generations before me, and I can only hope that I am able to inspire future generations to continue it.

    Lehuauakea is currently working toward solo exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Art Santa Fe and Nunu Fine Art in New York City, exploring ideas around Native Hawaiian cosmology, celestial cycles, and the relationship between Native Hawaiian language and pattern. Find more on the artist’s website.

    “Kūmauna” (2024), earth pigments hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 26 x 48 inches

    Detail of “Still Finding My Way Back Home”

    “I Walk With My Ancestors (1 of 2)” (2024), earth pigment and wildfire charcoal hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 29 x 61.5 inches

    “Night Eyes” (2024), earth pigments and wildfire charcoal hand-painted on kapa (barkcloth), 78 x 18.5 inches

    “Mele o Nā Kaukani Wai (Song of a Thousand Waters)” (2018), mixed mulberry papers, handmade plant dyes and mineral pigments, gouache, ceramic beads, and thread, approx. 11 x 8 feet

    Detail of “Mele o Nā Kaukani Wai (Song of a Thousand Waters)”

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    Geometric Scaffolding Structures Geoffrey Todd Smith’s Gouache-and-Ink Portraits

    “Harmonizing With an Architect” (2025), gouache and ink on paper, 42 1/2 x 60 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Western Exhibitions, shared with permission

    Geometric Scaffolding Structures Geoffrey Todd Smith’s Gouache-and-Ink Portraits

    April 10, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    From the center of a gridded structure made of striped orbs and oblong shapes are two elements redolent of eyes. Seeming to peer out from the largely abstract composition, these facial features are augmented by forms that mimic ears, noses, and mouths all nested within the vivid patterns.

    The work of Chicago-based artist Geoffrey Todd Smith, these ambiguous portraits rendered in gouache and ink reference masks or mirrored reflections, revealing a distant figure without a defined identity. “To be honest, I keep thinking of them as evolving forms,” he tells Colossal. “I try to find new things in them when I look at them. I’m not entirely sure I want to figure them out because I probably won’t want to make them if I understand them.”

    “Picture of Dorian Greige” (2024), gouache and ink on paper, 24 x 22 inches

    Continually drawn to abstraction and geometry, Smith is known for his mesmerizing works that infuse elaborate, often zigzagged motifs with simple structures. Vibrant spheres seem to spill across the paper, creating trippy, symmetric compositions bursting with energy.

    The artist departs from pure abstraction in this new body of work as he incorporates humanoid components amid his interlocked shapes. Geometry still provides a scaffolding, though. He adds:

    If there is a break from logic, that sense of order can quickly collapse, creating tension, sort of like removing the bottom pieces in a game of Jenga. Either way, geometry helps me construct a sort of game board to which I respond with more decorative or ornamental decisions. Even the decorative hand-drawn elements play an optical and structural role. They either assert or interfere with order, depending on how I manipulate them.

    These ornamental additions are the product of a slow, introspective process. Smith prefers not to mix colors and instead layers materials to achieve a particular palette.

    “Medieval Knievel” (2025), gouache and ink on paper, 33 x 29 inches

    “The mark from a gel pen is so immediate and relatable. I like that they were marketed to teenagers because nobody feels quite as deeply as they do at that age,” he says. “I think of the intensity and rigor of my marks as mysterious emoting or like writing a gut-wrenching, abstract love letter.”

    If you’re in Chicago, you can see Smith’s solo show Assembly at Western Exhibitions through April 12. Otherwise, find more of his work on his website and Instagram.

    “Frock Of Regals” (2023), gouache and ink on paper, 22 x 30 inches

    “King Cobralabra” (2024), gouache, acrylic and ink on paper, 24 x 22 inches

    “Beastmaster General” (2024), gouache and ink on paper, 24 x 22 inches

    “Mixed-Message Magician” (2025), acrylic, gouache, and ink on paper, 37 1/2 x 29 inches

    “Chicago Armadillo” (2023), acrylic, gouache, and ink on paper, 30 x 22 1/4 inches

    “Atom Bomb Boom Box” (2023), acrylic, gouache, and ink on paper, 30 x 22 1/4 inches

    “Molotov Pineapple” (2023), acrylic, gouache, and ink on paper, 22 1/4 x 30 inches

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    Daniel Martin Diaz Encodes Cosmic Questions into Geometric Paintings and Prints

    “Celestial Harmonics.” All images courtesy of Daniel Martin Diaz, shared with permission

    Daniel Martin Diaz Encodes Cosmic Questions into Geometric Paintings and Prints

    April 2, 2025

    ArtIllustration

    Kate Mothes

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    In his ongoing “quest to articulate the ineffable,” Arizona-based artist Daniel Martin Diaz (previously) creates large-scale works that merge metaphysical, scientific, and technological phenomena into vibrant geometric compositions.

    Diaz’s current solo exhibition, UNIVERSAL CODES at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art, presents recent work drawing on a wide range of influences, from Mexican religious iconography and arcane religious sigils to Early Netherlandish painters and Gothic decorative motifs.

    “Cross Species Interface”

    Diaz’s work often investigates concepts of death and religion “as he seeks to pose questions but not answer them,” says an exhibition statement. Juxtaposing esoteric symbols and messages with scientific diagrams and spiritual iconography, the artist explores the surreality of cosmic forces.

    UNIVERSAL CODES continues through April 27 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Find more on Diaz’s Instagram, and peruse a range of prints, apparel, and home accessories in his shop.

    “Temporal Soul”

    “Chrono”

    “Beyond the Self”

    “Astral Projection”

    “Conscious Universe”

    “Codex”

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    Tia Keobounpheng’s Vibrating Textile Geometries Merge Modernism and Sámi Lineage

    “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE no9” (2023), 48 x 72 inches. All images courtesy of Tia Keobounpheng, shared with permission

    Tia Keobounpheng’s Vibrating Textile Geometries Merge Modernism and Sámi Lineage

    March 27, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

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    Tia Keobounpheng learned to weave in Oulu, Finland, when she was 18 years old. Seated beside two older Finnish women in a community weaving center, she worked for hours, hardly speaking a word. Two decades later, following university studies in weaving, architecture, and design, the Minnesota-based artist’s memory of her first lesson connects her to her ancestral land and its time-honored craft traditions.

    On wood panels, Keobounpheng weaves colorful threads to create precise geometries in vibrating color. She says, “My exploration into geometry coincided with learning that in my known familial histories, there was a suppressed Sámi lineage through my great-grandmother’s line, thereby completely changing the narrative of our Finnish heritage.”

    Detail of “THREADS no6”

    The Sámi people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula are an Indigenous group with their own unique languages and a traditional, semi-nomadic livelihood that includes practices like reindeer and sheep herding, coastal fishing, and fur trapping.

    Historically, as the Scandinavians remained mostly south and Sámi communities lived in the north, contact was uncommon. But by the 19th century, Scandinavian governments began to assert sovereignty over the north, targeting the Sámi, who were increasingly viewed as “primitive” or “backward.” Their language was outlawed and many cultural customs suppressed as they were forced to assimilate into Scandinavian society.

    During the pandemic, Keobounpheng was helping her son during a distance-learning 4th-grade geometry class, and a particular phrase caught her attention. “Geo means earth, so geometry is just measuring the earth,” the teacher said.

    “These words… changed my worldview and reminded me that underneath rigid linear laws, an entire foundation of forgotten circular consciousness exists,” the artist says. “Aside from the powerful conceptual connections I was able to draw from geometry as a visual language to understand and express a circular, expansive worldview, the physical motions of spinning the compass awakened something deep within me.”

    “THREADS no6” (202), 24 x 18 inches

    Keobounpheng’s compositions are both exact and interwoven, as shapes blend into other shapes, neither fully independent nor simply an all-over pattern. She describes the physicality of moving a needle and thread back and forth through paper or wood as a means of metaphorically stitching this worldview into her muscle memory.

    The artist’s father is a self-trained architect, and from him, she adopted a modernist lens. “Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and Josef and Anni Albers were early favorites of mine in my teen and young adult years,” she tells Colossal. “These days, Agnes Martin, Hilma af Klint, and Sámi artist Outi Pieski are my anchors of inspiration.”

    Each piece requires initial planning to map the geometry, drill holes, select the color palette, and begin threading a black-and-white framework. But often, “all of my best intentions or visions for what the work will be start to loosen and sometimes fly away,” she says. “There is always a point, with every piece, where I must surrender my plan and give way to the threads.”

    The artist’s work will be on view in Weinstein Hammons Gallery’s booth at EXPO Chicago at the end of April. She is also currently participating in Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art at Scandinavia House, which runs from April 5 to August 2 in New York City and also includes work by Sonja Peterson. Find more on Keobounpheng’s website and Instagram.

    “THREADS no19” (2024), 16 x 16 inches

    “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE no15” (2024), 24 x 18 inches

    “THREADS no25” (2025)

    Detail of “THREADS no25”

    “THREADS no18” (2024), 16 x 16 inches

    “THREADS no7” (2022), 24 x 18 inches

    “CIRCLE ROUND no5” (2023), 12 x 12 inches

    “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE no13” (2024), 96 x 48 inches

    Reverse of “THREADS no25”

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    Ruby Sky Stiler Reassesses Women’s Role in Art History in Geometric Portraits

    “Artist with Green Palette” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 34 inches. All images © Ruby Sky Stiler, courtesy of the artist and alexander Gray Associates, New York, shared with permission

    Ruby Sky Stiler Reassesses Women’s Role in Art History in Geometric Portraits

    February 27, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Up close, the irregularly gridded, geometric backgrounds of Ruby Sky Stiler’s paintings evoke patchwork or the patterns of agricultural landscapes seen aerially. Intricate patterns intersect in each rectangle, hinting at floral or decorative motifs that, when viewed from further away, appear almost topographical. Merging with this groundwork are boldly delineated women who often directly return the viewer’s gaze.

    Reassessing the history of Western art, Stiler positions women in what she has previously described as “the empowered role as The Artist.” Rather than muses or objectified subjects, she imbues her figures with qualities of control, liberty, and leisure.

    “Woman with Children in Blue” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 50 inches

    Recently on view at Frieze LA with Alexander Gray Associates, Stiler’s paintings continue to reenvision 20th-century abstraction, especially the predominantly male Cubist movement that burgeoned around 1907 and 1908. She turns the tables on the historically gendered dichotomy in fine art, transferring the role of women as subjects of paintings to that of creator.

    In works like “Women with Children in Blue,” Stiler portrays nude figures in repose or with children, emphasizing another potent definition of women as creators and caregivers. Through mosaic-like compositions, she challenges art historical tropes and reasserts more inclusive, contemporary definitions of gender roles in art.

    Stiler employs a meticulous graphite transfer process to apply patterned outlines to her pieces, nodding to textile design—a craft tradition also historically trivialized in the art world as “women’s work.” Pastel acrylic hues fill out bodies and backgrounds, while bold outlines evocative of minimalist Bauhaus design clarify bodies and objects.

    Stiler is currently preparing a solo exhibition with Alexander Gray Associates scheduled for November. Explore more on her website and Instagram.

    “Two Women in Sienna and Umber, with Red Outline” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 50 inches

    “Blue Woman” (2024), canvas, acrylic, pencil, and jade adhesive on wood panel, 18 x 15 1/2 inches

    “Seated Blue Figure (with turquoise and red outline)” (2024), canvas, acrylic, graphite, and jade adhesive on panel, 44 x 34 inches

    The artist transfers graphite patterns onto canvas

    Stiler displays preparatory sketches in her studio

    Swatches are labeled for use in a painting

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    Color and Repetition Form Optical Rhythms in Daniel Mullen’s Geometric Paintings

    “Helix No. 2.” All images courtesy of Daniel Mullen, shared with permission

    Color and Repetition Form Optical Rhythms in Daniel Mullen’s Geometric Paintings

    November 6, 2024

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Transparent, glass-like planes sweep across Daniel Mullen’s canvases, dancing across the color spectrum and layering or rotating with mathematical precision. The Amsterdam-based artist (previously) has long been fascinated by the way pigments relate to one another and invite depth or contrast through opacity and tonal shifts.

    “At the moment, my work is taking shape in three forms: paintings on linen, wooden cut-outs that directly interact with their surrounding space, and sculptural pieces that play with illusion, light, and form,” Mullen tells Colossal. “Across these three mediums, the rectangle serves as a primal anchor, creating a framework for color and abstract illusion.”

    “Untitled Interaction No. 15”

    The artist is currently working on a series called Helix, in which he’s focused on capturing movement and rhythm through a pared-down palette. Quinacridone magenta, primary yellow, and turquoise phthalo—a family of blue and green pigments—form the basis of these explorations, allowing him to delve into their interactions and nuances.

    As if layering individual, tinted panes over one another in a twisting arrangement, the three hues interact to produce vibrant oranges, violets, and blues that appear to glow from within.

    Earlier this year, Mullen released his first book, Transfigurations, which showcases more than 40 works resulting from his investigations into form, color, and optical vibrations. “I consider it more an art object than a traditional book, reflecting my ongoing investigation into geometry and perception.

    Mullen is currently preparing for two solo exhibitions in Lima and São Paulo next spring. Find more on his website, where you can purchase Transfigurations, and follow updates on Instagram.

    Photo courtesy of Enlace Gallery

    “Vortex No. 9”

    “Spatial Drift No. 7”

    “Light Works”

    From the ‘Helix’ series

    Photo courtesy of Enlace Gallery

    ‘Transfigurations.’ Photo by The Book Photographer

    “Arising.” Photo courtesy of Enlace Gallery

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