Kaili Chun

Kaili Chun (b. 1962, Oʻahu) is a Native Hawaiian sculptor, installation artist, and educator whose monumental, site-responsive work addresses containment and exposure, agency and restraint, and the ongoing impact of Westernization. She earned a BA in Architecture from Princeton (studying under Toshiko Takaezu), an MFA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and apprenticed for years with master canoe builder Wright Elemakule Bowman Sr.

Approach. “I do large, monumental works because it’s a statement that we Hawaiians are still here and we have a voice.” Chun transforms physical spaces into immersive environments, often using repeated, hand-worked elements — cordage, copper, cable — to make Native presence and endurance visible. Her articulation of niu as a relational framework, holding layers of ʻike rather than a single extractable use, helped shape the curatorial ground of this exhibition.

Selected works & exhibitions. Uwē ka lani, Ola ka honua (2021); Muliwai (2023). She was among the first Native Hawaiian artists to exhibit at the Venice Biennale (2015) via the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, and has shown at the Honolulu Museum of Art and QAGOMA, Brisbane. NACF Fellow; Joan Mitchell Center resident.

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