Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 (HT25), on view through 04 May 2025, brings together more than 100 artworks by 49 artists and artist collectives from Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and beyond. The state’s largest, thematic exhibition of contemporary art, HT25 is entitled ALOHA NŌ. More than a ubiquitous Hawaiian greeting, aloha is a Hawaiian philosophy and way of life. Aloha is an action that embodies a profound love and truth-telling, a practice that ha been kept and cared for by the people of Hawaiʻi for generations. This practice of aloha engenders a deep connectivity to the ʻāina (land) and to each other. By collapsing two, seemingly opposite, meanings — “no” in English with “nō,” an intensifier, in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) — ALOHA NŌ seeks to reclaim aloha from its pervasive—often over-commodified—usage and situate it as a potentially transformative power that is collectively enacted through contemporary art.
Curated by Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Binna Choi, and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, HT25 unfolds across 14 sites of exhibitions on three Hawaiian Islands: O‘ahu, Maui, and Hawai‘i. Site-responsive artist projects and installations create a constellation of dialogues that reveal the layered meanings of aloha nō, which includes notions of resistance, transnational solidarity, resilience, stewardship, and healing.
“We have centered artists whose practices are shaped by their shared commitment to learning from and loving the people and places from where they and their ancestors come; in particular, Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and other islands and nations that share similar histories and struggles,” the curators collectively voiced. “Embracing a sense of urgency toward the practice of ALOHA NŌ—whether through fierce resistance and resolute solidarity or through an act of tender care and profound healing—we envision HT25 to be a unique, collective moment to articulate a deeper and broader dimensionality of love that is fundamental and universal to humanity through the specificity of Hawai‘i.”
Hayv Kahraman presents four new paintings on marbled, hand-woven flax that find that underscore species decline in Hawai‘i—in particular, kāhuli and pupukanioe (endangered Hawaiian snails). A new work on paper illustrates the Arabic fable Gamla and Bargooth, which illustrates the fragile balance with our environment and warns of ecological disaster. Together, the works reveal parallels between cultural stories and ecological resilience, emphasizing how loss and hardship can cultivate spaces for growth and understanding.
Yazan Khalili’s contribution to the Triennial is a powerful poem printed across a collection of T-shirts, hoodies, and hats—an installation that is both artwork and merch shop, questioning a future built on a US-funded genocide in Gaza. Posing ambivalently between commodity and artwork, each item is for sale, anticipating that parts of the statement will circulate in the everyday fabric of life.
A series of banners by Jumana Manna revive Palestinian traditions that were lost under occupation, and assert an historical past and future. Prior to the Nakba, festivities called mawasim (the seasons) took place, with the two most prominent being Nabi Musa—a week-long procession and encampment between Jerusalem and Jericho—and Nabi Rubin—a month-long festival on the coast between Gaza and Jaffa. Drawing on literary and archival research, Manna enacts the memory of these precolonial, liberatory celebrations, overlaying them with quotations written from within Israel’s racialized incarceration system. This juxtaposition insists on the possibilities of breaking through the material and psychological bars of captivity, and attends to the radical spirit
of defiance in Palestinian joy.
HT25 marks the first time the 11-week, multi-site exhibition will have a presence on Hawai‘i Island and Maui in addition to O‘ahu. HT25 also offers free public programs and audience-engagement events, including participatory art projects, workshops, artist talks, film screenings, panel discussions, tours, and more.
FULL HT25 ARTIST LIST: J. D. Nālamakūikapō Ahsing, Allora & Calzadilla, Meleanna Aluli Meyer, Nanci Amaka, Edith Amituanai, Art Labor + R Cham Tih, Rebecca Belmore, Melissa Chimera, Kahi Ching, Stephanie Comilang, Megan Cope, Sione Faletau, Teresita Fernández, Nikita Gale, Rocky Ka‘iouliokahihikoloʻEhu Jensen, Hayv Kahraman, Jane Jin Kaisen, Emily Karaka, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Yazan Khalili, Sung Hwan Kim, Al Lagunero, Las Nietas de Nonó, Lehuauakea, Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos), Nanea Lum, Jumana Manna, Gisela McDaniel, Brandy Nālani McDougall, Futoshi Miyagi, Brandon Ng, Christian Nyampeta, Carl F.K. Pao, John Pule, Tiare Ribeaux, Rice Brewing Sisters Club, Citra Sasmita, Sancia Miala Shiba Nash, Lieko Shiga, Rose B. Simpson, Russell Sunabe, Stephanie Syjuco, Taro Patch Creative, Salote Tawale, Shannon Te Ao, Kanitha Tith, wendelien van oldenborgh, and Warraba Weatherall
Press release from the Hawai’i Contemporary
Image: Hayv Kahraman. Makua Valley. 2025. Installation view at Honolulu Museum of Art. Photography by Duarte Studios. Image courtesy of the artist and Hawai’i Contemporary
