IAN KUALI'I
United States • 1980 | Born in Orange, California and grew up in Maui, Hawaï – Lives and works in Berkeley, California
Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and Apache mixed-media artist known as Ian Kuali’i. A mid-career self-taught artist, Kuali’i spent a decade in New York working within the contemporary urban art community, and is well-known for his hand-cut paper works.
More recently, he has been transforming his art practice to speak to both environmental and human conditions through interactive public art. Kuali’i utilizes both natural and artificial features of the landscape to develop ephemeral and site-specific installations, which he refers to as Earth Works/Land Art, and sees as a hybrid between traditional and contemporary art. Kuali’i comments, “My art practice has evolved into a reflection of my personal journey, a dichotomy between urban grit and ancestral spirit, chaotic energy and refined control, ultimately unifying the delicate and rough in symbiotic representation.”