Ian Kualiʻi is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and Mescalero Apache ancestry working in murals, large-scale hand-cut paper, and site-specific installation. Ian fluidly merges urban contemporary art with his ancestral iconography and history, drawing from occult symbolism, Indigenous politics, and Native Hawaiian cultural practices. From a single sheet of paper using only an x-acto blade as his tool, Ian’s portraits and compositions are carefully rendered in hand-cut paper, blending boldly geometric traditional patterns with delicate lenticular linework. Ian describes his creative approach as “a meditative process of destroying to create.”
The artist currently has a studio practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is sought after for his monumental installations, touring exhibitions, and innovative cut paper pieces. With a career spanning over two decades, his works have been featured by Wall\Therapy, UrbanArt Biennale 2017, Universal Pictures, Art Basel Miami, National Museum of Mexican Art, National Hispanic Cultural Center, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Moniker Art Fair UK, Millicent Rogers Museum, Heard Museum, and more. Ian has also received prominent residencies and fellowships with numerous institutions, including the Red Bull House of Art, de Young Museum, Hawaiʻi State Foundation, Institute of American Indian Arts, School for Advanced Research, and the National Parks Arts Foundation. In 2021, Ian Kualiʻi received his Knighthood with the Royal Order of the Crown of Hawaiʻi, furthering his dedication to representing his Native Hawaiian community and culture both at home in Hawaiʻi and abroad.
Residencies + Fellowships
2022 National Parks Arts Foundation Artist Resident; Volcanoes National Park, HI
2019 Dubin Fellowship — School for Advanced Research; Santa Fe, NM
2018 National Endowment for the Arts — Institute of American Indian Arts; Santa Fe, NM
2016 Red Bull House of Art; Detroit, MI
2014 de Young Museum; San Francisco, CA
2013 Artist Fellow — de Young Museum; San Francisco, CA
Select Solo Exhibitions
2023 And We Never Looked Back — Urban Shaman; Winnipeg, Manitoba
2019 New Works — Hecho a Mano; Santa Fe, NM
2018 The Elegant Dissonance — Station 16 Gallery; Montreal, Québec
2011 Ox Blood — 58 Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
2009 Ephemera — 58 Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
Select Group Exhibitions
2023 Heʻe Nalu: The Art and Legacy of Hawaiian Surfing — Heard Museum; Phoenix, AZ
Mai Ka Pōuli — Donkey Mill Art Center; Kona, HI
2022 Self-Determined — The Center for Contemporary Arts; Santa Fe, NM
Reclaiming Identity — Trout Museum of Art; Appleton, WI
Kilo I Ka Moʻo — East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center; Hilo, HI
Outcropping — Southampton Arts Center; Southampton, NY
2021 Idle Hands — Epiphany Center for the Arts; Chicago, IL
New Mexico A-i-R: IAIA Artist Residents in Visual Dialogue — Millicent Rogers Museum; Taos, NM
Intersections — Vital Spaces; Santa Fe, NM
2020 Larger Than Memory: Contemporary Art from Indigenous North America; Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
2019 Just Folks: Ten Years of 1975 and WALL\Therapy Curation — RIT City Art Space; Rochester, NY
Re)Collections — Galerie Openspace; Paris, France
2017 The Art of Indigenous Resistance — Honor the Earth, Traveling Exhibit; USA & International
Moniker Art Fair — London, UK
Broken Boxes — Form & Concept Gallery; Santa Fe, NM
UrbanArt Biennale 2017 — World Cultural Heritage Site, Völklinger Ironworks; Germany
2016 For They Know Not What They Do / Those Who Don’t — The House on Mango Street; National Hispanic Cultural Center; Albuquerque, NM
Rammellzee: Tribute to the Legend — Magda Danysz Gallery; London, UK
2015 For They Know Not What They Do / Those Who Don’t — The House on Mango Street - Artists
Interpret Community — National Museum of Mexican Art; Chicago, IL
2014 The Original 58 Gallery Reunion Show — Mary Benson Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
Miami Marine Stadium Group Exhibit — Grey Sheinbaum Fine Arts; Miami, Fl
Paper and Blade: Storytelling Under the Knife — Galeria de la Raza; San Francisco, CA
Tr3spasss — The Dumbo Spot; Brooklyn, NY
Braddock Tiles Print Release Exhibit — Kinfolk; Brooklyn, NY
Re-imagining Paper & Fiber International Invitational — University of Hawaiʻi, Wailoa Arts and Cultural Center; Hilo, HI
International Print Exhibition — Soon Gallery; Bern, Switzerland
2013 Affiliated: Art of the Urban Experience — Brisky Gallery for Art Basel; Miami, FL
Supadutytuffwork — LMNT for Art Basel; Miami, FL
Message in Bottle — QF Gallery for Scope Miami Beach; Miami, FL
Home Sweet Home — Bottleneck Gallery; New York, NY
My Point of View — Great Jones Space; New York, NY
The Future is Now — Highline Loft; New York, NY
Beautifully Broken — Von; New York, NY
POW WOW Hawaiʻi, 1st Annual Group Exhibition — Loft in Space; Honolulu, HI
2012 George Hearts Maria — Heliumcowboy; Hamburg, Germany
Art Music Success: Benefit for Bronx Success Academy 1 — Anonymous Gallery; New York, NY
2011 Rebaroque Artist Series Sound Wall — Scope NYC Art Fair; New York, NY
5811: Annual Group Show — 58 Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
2010 Jackie Paper for Scope — NYC Art Fair; New York, NY
Process Presents: Friends + Family — The Gowns Studio Space; Brooklyn, NY
2008 New Beginnings & Ancient Wisdom — Mana Fine Arts; Jersey City, NJ
Whitewashed: A Look at American revisionist History with Orlando Reyes & Yusef Uno —
58 Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
The Other Side — 58 Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
Funky Pop — 58 Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
Gigantic Miniature — 58 Gallery; Jersey City, NJ
Special Projects and commissions
2022 Public Mural — WALL\THERAPY; Rochester, NY
2018 Tethered, Axle Contemporary and Santa Fe Botanical Garden’s Wilderness Acts 2018 —
Leonora Wetlands Preserve (Land-based Ephemeral Installation in collaboration with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger); Santa Fe, NM
Hoʻoūluʻia, mural in the Allan Houser Art Park at Museum of Contemporary Native Arts; Santa Fe, NM
2017 50th Year in Art in Public Places — Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture & the Arts in partnership with Forecast Public Art; Honolulu, HI
Art and Community Intervention Project - Public Mural — WALL\THERAPY; Rochester, NY
2016 10th Anniversary Gala Exhibition & Auction — Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Detroit, MI
Art Curator — The Rammellzee Tribute; international exhibition
2014 Fragments Miami - Mural — Friends of Miami Marine Stadium Mural Project; Miami, FL
Estamos Aqui - Mural — Galaria de la Raza; San Francisco, CA
Paper & Blade - Live artist’s demonstration — de Young Museum; San Francisco, CA
2013 Soquili - Mural - Aqueduct Mural Projects at Aqueduct Racetrack; Queens, NY
Keaomelemele - Mural in collaboration with Estria, Prime, Trek6, Mark Bode and Bam — POW WOW Hawaiʻi at Fresh Cafe; Honolulu, HI
2012 Manifestation/Construction - Mural — meetup.com HQ; New York, NY
A Savage Society - Site-specific installation for Director Oliver Stone & Universal Pictures feature film Savages — The TriBeca Grand Hotel; New
York, NY
Pale Horse - Mural — Wooster Street Social Club, TV show “NY Ink”; New York, NY
Skull Studies - Featured street postering backdrop for Director Phil Alden Robinson’s feature film, “The Angriest Man”; Brooklyn, NY
The Messenger - Mural with ArrestedMotion.com — JuiceTank Innovation Lab; Somerset, NJ
2010 Street Propaganda Campaign - Street postering and stencils with Ron English for Director Morgan Spurlock and Sony Picture Classics
documentary, POM Wonderful Presents: “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”; New York City & Brooklyn, NY and Jersey City, NJ
