Native Hawaiian artist Nanea Lum is based in Honolulu. Her research-based practice ranges from kapa (Hawaiian wauke beaten bark fiber materials) to large-scale oil paintings. Nanea’s kapa is produced from plant material that she harvested and processed, dyed with inks from homemade charcoal, earth pigments, and plants. Her paintings often explore the intersections of land, sky, and sea through concepts and stories of creation.
Nanea Lum is a graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in the Masters of Fine Arts program of the Department of Art and Art History. Her areas of specialization include Hawaiian traditional craft techniques and art decolonization; applying methods of place-based learning and indigenous knowledge. Nanea works with community organizations in Hawai’i producing projects and building networks relating Hawaiian learning pathways with ‘āina (land resources).
Currently exhibiting Ho’i Hou at Koa Art Gallery at Kapi’olani Community College January 19 - April 19. Hoʻi Hou brings together a kapa video installation and five paintings produced over the past decade by Native Hawaiian artist Nanea Lum.