‘Oni: Disturbances & Resilience 2025 Juried Art Exhibition

Seven panels from my series Blue Remnants were included in ‘Oni: Disturbances & Resilience, the 2025 Juried Art Exhibition presented at Kahilu Theatre Gallery in Waimea, HI from January 16th through March 2, 2025.  Approximate Dimensions: 14’ x 10’ x 1’

Guest Juror Kanani Daley, Curator of Ola Nā Iwi at East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center in Hilo, invited artists to explore the concept of ʻonipaʻa. Simply defined, ʻonipaʻa translates as: steadfast, resolute, determined. The roots mean to be firm and solid (paʻa), and able to move, stir, and shift (ʻoni). As a part Queen Liliʻuokalani’s motto, ʻonipaʻa also references the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and has been notably adopted as the name of the annual ʻOnipaʻa Peace March that commemorates the Queen’s forced removal from the throne on January 17, 1893. In Hawaiʻi, outside cultures, species, economic models, and technologies have dramatically altered the landscape and people’s relationship to ecosystems. Resilience reflects the capacity to adapt to these shifts without losing the foundational integrity of the original.

Oni – 1. nvi. To move, stir, shift, fidget; movement, motion.

Pa‘a – 1. nvs. Firm, solid, tight, solidified, adhering, durable, fast, fixed, stuck, secure, closed, engaged, definite, steadfast, whole, 4. n. Stratum, foundation, especially paʻa-i-lalo, earth, and paʻa-i-luna, heavens.

Bellingham National 2023-2024

Later that year, six panels were included in the Whatcom Museum’s Bellingham National 2023 in Bellingham, WA. The exhibition, Acts of Healing and Repair,  was curated by Grace Kook-Anderson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art at the Portland Art Museum and was on view at the Whatcom Museum’s Lightcatcher Building from November 11, 2023 through February 25, 2024.

APAture 2023

Seven panels in my series Blue Remnants were included in the Kearney Street Workshop’s APAture 2023 Visual Showcase presented at ARC Gallery & Studios in San Francisco, CA from October 14 through November 4, 2023.  Dimensions: 19’ x 9’ x 1’

Statement: In the Blue Remnants series, I try to make sense of the history and culture I inherit as a mixed-race, Filipino-American. My father returned to the Philippines when I was 14 years old to escape the dehumanizing, white supremacist culture of the United States. With him, my direct tie to Filipino culture, food, and language left, defeated. And thus began my experience of never quite belonging, of not quite knowing where to find my cultural inheritance. I was left only with memories. But is this personal experience entirely different from the broader experience of a repeatedly colonized people where so much of our history and culture takes the form of ghosts and tortured memories, from which we attempt to cobble together a national narrative to recreate a sense of continuity?

Tales of the Tattoo 2022

In 2022, three panels were included in Tales of the Tattoo held by the Museum of Northern California Art in Chico, CA from August 25 through October 9, 2022.