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    Floral Quilted Portraits by Maria A. Guzmán Capron Cultivate Care and Love

    Detail of “Otra Vez.” All images courtesy of Lyles & King, shared with permission

    Floral Quilted Portraits by Maria A. Guzmán Capron Cultivate Care and Love

    May 14, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    For thousands of years, flowers have been a rich source of symbolism. Dating back to the Ottomans, floriology, or the language of flowers, blossomed in the Victorian era when a bouquet functioned as a nonverbal code. The delicate sweetpea, for example, might have been given as a thank you to a particularly generous host, while buttercups would tell the recipient that the sender thought them childish and immature.

    Maria A. Guzmán Capron (previously) references the timeless expressions of flowers for Solo Pienso en Volver a Verte, which opens this week at Lyles & King. Translating to “I only think about seeing you again,” the solo exhibition comprises the artist’s signature textile portraits of opulently patterned fabrics in a layered patchwork. Soft and plump with batting, the quilted characters are each unique, although Capron sometimes uses the same secondhand material on several pieces.

    “Déjame Llevarte”

    Encircled in hand-dyed fabrics, the figures in this body of work are often doubled or conjoined, as in the embracing women of “Otra Vez” or the two-faced subject of “Echa de Pedacitos.” Love, warmth, and protection feature prominently, as hands grasp for one another or emerge as a three-dimensional gesture. Capron envisions these layered, hybrid forms as a way to visualize the various identities, experiences, and memories within all of us.

    The artist also stitches and screenprints a wide array of flowers on faces, garments, and throughout the lush surroundings. Sometimes abstract and often indeterminate, the blooms share stories and messages of desire that might be unspeakable or better communicated through a symbol of affection. Tending to love in all of its forms is the thread that runs through each work, as Capron welcomes us into a world in which compassion and care are the most beautiful gifts.

    Solo Pienso en Volver a Verte runs through June 21 in New York. Find more from Capron on Instagram.

    “Otra Vez”

    “Echa de Pedacitos”

    “Para Que Me Mires”

    “Te Dejé Quererme”

    Detail of “Y Comencé”

    “También Allí”

    “Algo Escondido”

    Detail of “Otra Vez”

    “Y Comencé”

    Detail of “Te Dejé Quererme”

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    Celeste’s Immersive Textile Installations Embrace the Warm Intimacy of Home

    “Contra el miedo y la oscuridad, la fiesta colorida y feliz” (2024), pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas, 4.5 x 7.5 meters, installation view at Escuela Primaria Maestra Antonio Caso, Mexico City. Photo by Israel Esparza. All images courtesy of Celeste, shared with permission

    Celeste’s Immersive Textile Installations Embrace the Warm Intimacy of Home

    May 9, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    When María Fernanda Camarena and Gabriel Rosas Alemán aren’t in their Mexico City studio, you might find them pulling weeds or chopping vegetables. “We love cooking and gardening—practices rooted in care, and ones we’d love to weave into our work someday,” they say. “There’s a quiet mindfulness in both that aligns perfectly with what we aim to express.”

    This desire to care roots much of the artists’ practice, which they present together under the name Celeste. Thinking of themselves as hosts, Celeste transforms galleries and museums with large-scale textile installations. In warm shades of pinks, oranges, and reds, the translucent cotton often allows light to filter through and cast tinted shadows around the space. Each work becomes a sort of mise-en-scène as viewers are invited to lounge with friends, enjoy a meal, or perform among the textiles.

    Installation view of “Melons Covered in Willow Leaves” at the artists’ studio. Photo by Anna Pla Narbona

    The earthy color palette—originally inspired by natural dyeing materials like avocado pit and turmeric root—began after the onset of COVID-19, when the artists wanted to create “an atmosphere that felt like an embrace, a much-needed warmth after the isolation of 2020,” they say. “This concept of solace stayed with us, and today, the palette has come to symbolize safe spaces, with the womb as a recurring motif: a protected, intimate interior.”

    Projects include “Contra el miedo y la oscuridad, la fiesta colorida y feliz,” or “Against fear and darkness, the colorful and happy party,” made in collaboration with a 4th-grade class from Mexico City’s Granada neighborhood. After adding their own drawings to the cotton panels, the students used the vivid installation as the backdrop for a school festival.

    The monumental “Melons Covered in Willow Leaves” is even more immersive, as viewers were invited to wander underneath a tent of draped fabric. And in their most recent exhibition at Rebecca Camacho Presents in San Francisco, the artists have installed a trio of suspended works that bisect the gallery, with arched openings that allow visitors to pass through. Referencing Diego Rivera’s “Agua, el origen de la vida” mural, the triad explores the connections between water and the impact of Mexico City’s colonial history on its landscape.

    Later this month at The Bentway in Toronto, the pair will also present “Casting a Net, Casting a Spell,” a quilted canopy of 100 individual panels created as both a suncatcher and a necessary repreieve from the summer rays. It’s their largest project to date.

    Installation view of Hacer brotar / To sprout at Rebecca Camacho Presents, San Francisco. Photo by Robert Divers Herrick

    With each work, Celeste hopes to “invite the spectator not only in the sense of contemplation but rather in the involvement with the ceremonial… In this setting, the sensorial and emotional realms are recognized as legitimate sources of knowledge and an experience of hospitality and acknowledgment can take place without restrictions.”

    Celeste’s Hacer brotar / To sprout is on view through June 14 in San Francisco. Explore much more of the duo’s practice and process on their website and Instagram.

    Detail of “¡Qué llueva, qué llueva!” (2025), pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas, 66 x 109 inches

    Installation view of Hacer brotar / To sprout at Rebecca Camacho Presents, San Francisco. Photo by Robert Divers Herrick

    “Contra el miedo y la oscuridad, la fiesta colorida y feliz” (2024), pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas, 4.5 x 7.5 meters, installation view at Escuela Primaria Maestra Antonio Caso, Mexico City. Photo by Israel Esparza

    “Hacer olas” (2023), pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas, 2.7 x .25 x 12 meters, installation view at The Contemporary Austin, Austin, Texas. Photo by Alex Boeschenstein

    “Mellons Covered in Willow Leaves” 2024), scale model of the project in the artists’ studio 

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    Ethereal Weavings Merge Architecture and Nature in Élise Peroi’s ‘For Thirsting Flowers’

    Installation view of ‘For Thirsting Flowers.’ All images courtesy of the artist and CARVALHO PARK, New York, shared with permission

    Ethereal Weavings Merge Architecture and Nature in Élise Peroi’s ‘For Thirsting Flowers’

    May 8, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    Imagine standing at a window at dawn as the pale yellow morning light filters through the trees, slowly illuminating flower petals and setting the scene for birdsong. As you move around, the light dapples and changes, and details emerge or disappear around other forms. For Élise Peroi, this sensation provides a starting point for elegant textile sculptures.

    Onto graceful wooden frames, the French artist weaves ethereal, layered screens evocative of dreamy portals to nature. “The luminosity of Peroi’s woven paintings is such that we might feel ourselves carried outside to watch the sky brighten, the air soft against our skin,” says Dr. Rebecca Birrell in an essay accompanying Peroi’s solo exhibition, For Thirsting Flowers, at CARVALHO PARK.

    Detail of “Pensée I” (2025), painted silk and linen, 36 x 28 x 3 inches

    The artist taps into the long tradition of European tapestries, which were used for both decoration and to help keep homes and churches insulated. Stitched by hand, the works could reach architectonic proportions and contain highly detailed figurative and narrative scenes. Peroi departs from customary associations with tapestries by removing the pieces from the wall and creating standalone, self-supporting structures.

    She also emphasizes a kind of opening-up of the textile itself. The interactions between warp and weft are loose, delicate, and irregular. And each piece’s depth is determined by the wooden framework, details of which often jut outward in gentle yet willful angles.

    Peroi’s sculptures appear to subtly morph as one walks around, merging internal and external perspectives. The artist explores relationships between emptiness, form, perception, and the built environment, hinting at recognizable shapes like flowers and foliage set against muted diamond-shaped geometric patterns or open spaces in the weave. And the frames serve both as display devices and looms—the process and finished piece merged into one.

    For Thirsting Flowers continues in Brooklyn through May 23. See more on the artist’s website.

    Installation view of ‘For Thirsting Flowers’ at CARVALHO PARK, New York

    “La lune” (2025), silk, silver leaf, gouache, acrylic, and linen, 64 x 55 x 6 inches

    “Pensée I” (2025), painted silk and linen, 36 x 28 x 3 inches

    Installation view of ‘For Thirsting Flowers’ at CARVALHO PARK, New York

    Installation view of ‘For Thirsting Flowers’ at CARVALHO PARK, New York

    “Songes II” (2022), painted silk and linen, 55 x 78 x 6 inches

    Detail of “Songes II”

    Installation view of ‘For Thirsting Flowers’ at CARVALHO PARK, New York

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    Isabelle D’s Lush Crocheted Landscapes Intertwine Pain and Pleasure

    From the ‘Bruise’ series. All images courtesy of Gallery Nosco, shared with permission

    Isabelle D’s Lush Crocheted Landscapes Intertwine Pain and Pleasure

    May 6, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Grace Ebert

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    At seven years old, Isabelle D learned to crochet as a means of supporting her family. Taking lessons from her grandmother, the young artist crafted various items to sell at local markets and set herself on a path she continues to follow today.

    From silk, cotton, viscose, and other fibers, Isabelle D crochets innumerable forms evocative of coral, sea sponges, anemones, flowers, molds, spores, and more. Each work comprises a diverse array of sculptural pieces, which nest together in broad landscapes brimming with myriad colors and textures.

    “A Officinalis”

    The artist’s childhood ingenuity has instilled a commitment to care and resilience that appears both materially and metaphorically in her practice. In her new A Officinalis series, the medicinal, anti-inflammatory properties of the marshmallow plant become a symbol for healing and regeneration. Soft, supple forms in pale pinks and blues are met by fuzzy structures in creamy white yarn, creating a quiet, meditative garden for recovery.

    Composed of vibrant reds and purples, the Bruise series takes a converse approach. Color is always critical to Isabelle D’s practice, and these works rely on vibrant, saturated reds, purples, and blues to mimic a damaged body. While the pieces evoke injury, they’re markedly beautiful and a sort of homage to the strength that emerges from trauma.

    In the way that crochet requires an even tension to achieve stitches that aren’t too loose or too tight, Isabelle D strives for a similar balance in her practice and rejects the fast pace at which today’s world moves. Instead, she crafts each piece by hand without the help of assistants, immersing herself in the slow, methodical process of inserting the hook and looping it through the yarn.

    If you’re in Brussels, stop by Gallery Nosco to see the artist’s solo exhibition, Hanging by a Thread, which runs through May 24.

    From the ‘Bruise’ series

    From the ‘Bruise’ series

    Detail of “A Officinalis”

    Detail of “A Officinalis”

    Detail of “Mensonge et Vérité”

    Detail of “Mensonge et Vérité”

    “Mould”

    From the ‘Bruise’ series

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    Discarded Packaging and Labels Find New Life in Kelly Kozma’s Vibrant Patchworks

    “Magma & Reef” (2025). All images courtesy of Kelly Kozma and Paradigm Gallery + Studio, shared with permission

    Discarded Packaging and Labels Find New Life in Kelly Kozma’s Vibrant Patchworks

    May 2, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    From dozens of Chiquita banana labels to toothpaste packaging to color-coded quality control stickers, Kelly Kozma finds beauty in everyday ephemera. “Piece by piece, she saves any colorful or textured box that she encounters, even though most are expected to be discarded after their original use,” says Paradigm Gallery + Studio, which opens the artist’s solo exhibition Watch Me Backflip this weekend.

    Kozma takes an archival and interdisciplinary approach to working with numerous found materials, combining a variety of media into two-dimensional wall works, expansive textile-inspired assemblages, and voluminous suspended installations. “Watch Me Backflip embraces ideas of reusing material, interconnectedness, and the significance of the smallest interaction on a much larger environment,” says an exhibition statement.

    Installation view of ‘Watch Me Backflip’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio

    “Iguana & Myrrh” and “Magma & Reef” mark the largest compositions Kozma has created. The former spans 22 feet in circumference and comprises more than 30,000 hand-stitched circles cut from a wide variety of greeting cards, found packaging, and other colorful materials. Committed to a minimal-waste practice, the artist incorporates scraps and loose threads into a number of accompanying works in Watch Me Backflip.

    “As she stitches these lovingly collected pieces, Kozma creates connections between the people in her life and the objects she interacts with, inspiring mindfulness against overconsumption and emotional apathy,” the gallery says.

    Watch Me Backflip opens today and continues through June 1 in Philadelphia. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

    “I See Your Beauty” (2025), process control patches and acrylic on panel

    Installation view of ‘Watch Me Backflip’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio

    Detail of “Iguana & Myrrh”

    Installation view of ‘Watch Me Backflip’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio

    “Peels So Good” (2025), banana stickers and acrylic on panel

    Detail of “Iguana & Myrrh”

    The artist working on the installation of “Magma & Reef”

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    Architectural Textiles by Sarah Zapata Explore Material Culture and Intersecting Identities

    “Part of the tension (from earthen pits) II” (2024), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, and hand coiled rope, 50 x 14 x 14 inches. All images © Sarah Zapata, courtesy of the artist, Kasmin, and Sargent’s Daughters, shared with permission

    Architectural Textiles by Sarah Zapata Explore Material Culture and Intersecting Identities

    May 1, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    In vibrant patchworks of woven patterns and fuzzy fiber ends, Sarah Zapata’s sculptures (previously) emerge as wall-hung tapestries, standalone pieces, and forest-like installations. Through the convergence of architectural structures, soft textiles, and myriad patterns and textures, her site-specific works examine the nature of layered identities shaped by her Peruvian heritage, queerness, her Evangelical upbringing in South Texas, and her current home in New York.

    Zapata balances time-honored craft practices with contemporary applications, highlighting the significance of Indigenous Peruvian weaving, for example, as a means of communication. Symbols and patterns composed into cloth traditionally provided a means of sharing knowledge and cosmological beliefs.

    Installation view of ‘Beneath the Breath of the Sun’ (2024) at ASU Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona. Commissioned by CALA Alliance

    In abstract sculptures that often merge with their surroundings, Zapata incorporates unexpected and vibrant color combinations with woven fabrics and tufted textures. Resisting easy categorization, her pieces are neither functional nor purely decorative, although they play with facets of both.

    Zapata consciously holds back from creating work that is too “beautiful,” inviting a remarkable, tactile exploration of relationships between craft, lineage, community, and memory.

    Some of the works shown here are included in Support Structures at Sargent’s Daughters, which continues through through May 3. Find more on Zapata’s website and Instagram.

    “How often they move between the planets” (2022), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, 144 x 60 inches

    Detail of “How often they move between the planets”

    “Part of the tension (from earthen pits) I” (2024), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, and hand coiled rope, 49 x 14 x 14 inches

    Installation view of ‘To strange ground and high places,’ Galleria Poggiali, Milan. Photo by Michele Alberto Sereni

    “Towards and ominous time III” (2022), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, 144 x 60 inches

    Installation view of ‘To strange ground and high places,’ Galleria Poggiali, Milan. Photo by Michele Alberto Sereni

    Detail of “Part of the tension (from earthen pits) II”

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    ‘Of Salt and Spirit’ Celebrates the Legacy of Black Southern Quilters

    Hystercine Rankin (1929–
    2010), “Memory Quilt” (ca. 1994), fabric; appliquéd, hand-embroidered, and hand-quilted, 88 x 82 inches. All images courtesy of Mississippi Museum of Art, shared with permission

    ‘Of Salt and Spirit’ Celebrates the Legacy of Black Southern Quilters

    April 23, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Kate Mothes

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    You may have heard of the remarkable quilters of Gee’s Bend, but do you know about the Crossroads Quilters, like Gustina Atlas? Or Hystercine Rankin? Mary Mayfair Matthews? You’re in luck if you have a chance to visit Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South at the Mississippi Museum of Art, which shines a light on dozens of incredible Black Southern quilters and takes a celebratory approach to showcasing their myriad styles and techniques.

    MMA is home to one of the South’s largest collections of quilts, from which more than 50 handmade and machine-stitched examples were drawn for this expansive exhibition. Merging research, interpretation, and community engagement, curator Dr. Sharbreon Plummer aimed for “a cohesive, experiential study of American art through a Black feminist lens.” The show parses cultural narratives around the art form, spotlighting the impact of the craft across generations and geography.

    Emma Russell, “Star Quilt” (1978), cotton blend; hand-pieced, appliquéd, and hand-quilted, 81 x 77 inches

    A wide range of contemporary and historic pieces converge in Of Salt and Spirit, including figurative and narrative works alongside vibrant geometric compositions. Many of the works were acquired by the museum from Roland L. Freeman (1936-2023), a photographer who documented African-American craftspeople and guilds in his work as a stringer for Time magazine and Magnum Photos.

    Freeman collected more than 100 quilts, made several of his own, and published a couple of books on the subject. “Quilts have the power to create a virtual web of connections—individual, generational, professional, physical, spiritual, cultural, and historical,” he says in his second book, A Communion of the Spirits (1996).

    In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum also highlights the large-scale, ongoing AIDS Memorial Quilt project, which was initiated in 1985 at the height of the epidemic. Paralleling Of Salt and Spirit’s focus on creative expression, identity, and strength, the AIDS quilt—which will be on display at MMA for a two-week period beginning May 5—honors quilting for its role in resistance and remembrance.

    Of Salt and Spirit continues through May 18 in Jackson. Plan your visit on the museum’s website. You may also enjoy a look back at Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers, a monumental survey recognizing the artistic traditions of Black artists.

    Mary Mayfair Matthews, “Folk Scenes Quilt” (1992), rayon, cotton polyester blend, lace, lamé, and buttons; hand-pieced and appliquéd, 86 1/4 x 74 inches

    Annie Dennis (designed by Roland L. Freeman), “Voodoo Quilt” (1987), fabric; hand-pieced, appliquéd, hand-embroidered, and hand-quilted, 83 1/2 x 64 inches

    Detail of “Voodoo Quilt”

    Gustina Atlas, “Variation on Dresden Plate Quilt” (1998), cotton; machine- pieced and hand-quilted, 81 1/2 x 80 inches

    Clancy McGrew, quilted and appliquéd by Jeraline Nicholas, “Storytime at the Library” (2004), fabric; machine-pieced, appliquéd, embroidered, and hand-quilted, 41 3/4 x 83 1/8 inches

    Mabel Williams, “Improvisational Strip Quilt” (1968), cotton, polyester, wool, twill; hand-pieced and hand- quilted with appliquéd and embroidered backing, 85 x 65 inches

    Clancy McGrew, quilted by Tammy McGrew, “Clancy’s Beauty Salon” (2004), fabric; machine-pieced, appliquéd, and hand-quilted, 67 5/8 x 49 1/2 inches

    Roland Freeman, “Maya Angelou, Author, Educator, and Quilter (top left and bottom right); Dolly McPherson, Maya Angelou, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall (top right and bottom left), Winston-Salem, North Carolina, November 1992” (1992), Chromogenic print with quilted mat (1996) by Anita Knox, 36 x 36 inches

    Roland Freeman, “Catherine Gill with Sunburst Quilt (left) Made by Her Mother, Classy Blaylock, fromDecatur, Mississippi, Flagstaff, Arizona, April 1993″ (1993), Chromogenic print, 27 x 38 inches

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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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