Roland Longstreet

Roland Longstreet (b. 1990) is a painter and sculptor based in Honolulu. He graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a BA in Art (painting and sculpture, minor in Chinese), and in 2016 helped open ARS Cafe, curating monthly art and music programs under the guidance of John Koga and Lawrence Seward before transitioning to art full-time.

Approach. Longstreet makes sinewy, gestural figurative paintings focused on philosophy and esoteric thought, “exploring the medium in search of connectivity and overlap with universal and basic truths.” He cites Pollock, de Kooning, and Francis Bacon among his touchstones, and approaches Hawaiʻi — like the other artists in Niu Systems — through an active relation rather than a single resolved view.

Selected works & exhibitions. Study of Presence (1–3) and Golfer. He held his first residency through Single Double in Nuʻuanu (2021–22), gave an artist talk at MassArt, Boston (2023), and showed with Ontopo at NADA Miami (2024).

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