Bishop Museum Welcomes Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025

# Bishop Museum Welcomes Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025

The state's largest thematic exhibition of contemporary art will showcase nine artists in the Museum's Castle Memorial Building, with discounted admission during Opening Weekend.

Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai'i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, welcomes the Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025 back to its Castle Memorial Building from Feb. 15 through May 4, 2025.

As part of its Opening Weekend celebration, Bishop Museum is offering discounted admission of $15.00 for kamaʻāina and military on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 15-16, 2025. In addition, Bishop Museum Members enjoy a special preview from 4-6 p.m. on Valentine's Night, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025.

The Hawaiʻi Triennial is the state's largest thematic exhibition of contemporary art from Hawaiʻi, the Pacific, and beyond. Every three years, Hawaiʻi Contemporary presents the Triennial across museums, galleries, and outdoor and unconventional spaces, and offers a complementary program of public engagements. Curated by Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Binna Choi, and Noelle Kahanu, this year's Triennial theme, ALOHA NŌ, invites visitors to [re]consider their own notions and preconceptions of aloha.

As described by Hawaiʻi Contemporary, the nine contemporary artists showcased at Bishop Museum's exhibition have art practices with connections to cultural material and informed by archival collections, including those of the Museum. The intergenerational grouping of artists explores their personal and cultural relationships to land and colonized territories, offering visualizations of "home/land" and interpretations of defense.

"We're honored to welcome the Hawaiʻi Triennial back to Bishop Museum, and mahalo our partner, Hawaiʻi Contemporary and their featured artists for HT25," said Healoha Johnston, Bishop Museum director of Cultural Resources and curator for Hawaiʻi and Pacific arts and culture. "The 2025 iteration brings large-scale contemporary art installations to the Museum, many consisting of familiar textures such as plant fibers, presented uniquely in the gallery in an uprecedented way."

"Kapwani Kiwanga's Vestibule and J.D. Nālamakūikapō Ahsing's ʻĀinamoana stretch sisal and hau respectively from floor to ceiling. Stephanie Syjuco repurposes Bishop Museum's display cases to contextualize her installation, Blind Spot (Artifacts), while Tiare Ribeaux and John Pule draw upon materials found in Bishop Museum's Library & Archives to inform their work. Emily Karaka's mixed-media on canvas works, and video installations by Salote Tawale and Sione Faletau turn two-dimensional formats into threedimensional experiences bringing a lot of depth to the exhibition. Brandy Nālani McDougall offers a concrete poem titled Aloha Ka'apuni/Revolutionary Aloha: Kealaikahiki to comment on the present moment. Of all the Hawaiʻi-based artists, Brandy Nālani McDougall is the only artist Bishop Museum has presented work by in the past — and in those instances, in print and performance formats outside of the gallery — making this a dynamic exhibition that is entirely new to our visitors."

Healoha shared that contemporary art has always been a part of Bishop Museum's kuleana and galleries, noting several pieces in the Hawaiian Hall Complex; the murals installed throughout the Museum's campus; and, prior exhibitions such as Corned Beef & Kalo, Project Banaba, and POW! WOW! The First Decade: From Hawaiʻi to the World.

"Contemporary art plays an important role in continuing the Museum's sharing of Hawaiʻi and Pacific history, culture, and natural sciences through the lens of present-day artists," Healoha said.

A detailed description of the nine artists and their featured works is provided by Hawaiʻi Contemporary, below.

News media are invited to an exclusive closed-door, pre-opening preview of the Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025 exhibition at Bishop Museum:

Media Preview of Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025

• Thursday, Feb. 13
• 1-4 p.m.
• Castle Memorial Buidling, Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice St.
• Interview opportunities with the exhibition curators, artists, and Bishop Museum representatives.
• Please RSVP with Lance Aquino via the email address noted at the top of this release.

For more information, please visit BishopMuseum.org/HT25. Bishop Museum expresses its appreciation for the John Chin Young Foundation and OUTRIGGER Resorts & Hotels for their support of this exhibition.

Featured Artists and Works (provided by Hawaiʻi Contemporary)

A large-scale, site-responsive architectural installation by Kapwani Kiwanga evokes the toxic economy of the plantation, rethinking ethnographic representations, which Stephanie Syjuco also interrogates by way of reworking their photographic and display technique. Sione Faletau and J.D. Nālamakūikapō Ahsing expand upon Pacific voyaging — the former offering newly interpreted kupesi (Tongan traditional pattern) based on a chant for sailing, and the latter using new techniques to make paper out of Hawaiian hau, creating a Kanaka cartography out of 'āina and moana materials. A new series of five paintings by Emily Karaka depicts passionate imaginaries of key Hawaiian mauna. Drawing inspiration from a series of books in the Museum's archive on the artist's native Niue, John Pule created a new large-scale painting while on O'ahu, which he will present alongside a booklet of collected poems. Salote Tawale and Tiare Ribeaux recount personal journeys and familial migrations in their respective film works. And artist and poet laureate Brandy Nālani McDougall offers a newly commissioned poem that explores aloha nō and the concept of Aloha Ka'apuni, or Revolutionary Aloha.