Hoʻākea Source 2024 Grant Awardees

Welcome to Here

Kainoa Gruspe
2024 Grant Recipient

Kainoa aims to explore privatized properties that could be described as unfriendly, extractive, and oppressive, such as golf courses, large hotels, and current/former military installations on O‘ahu. Legally accessing these sites, the artist will collect discarded rocks, leftover building material, and plant matter. These materials will be used across various projects including sculpture, installation, and community workshops. The work will be centered upon redefining the use/fate of the reclaimed material, and reimagining futures for land and resource use on O‘ahu. Welcome to Here will also include research and reflection on the history of the land being occupied.

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Kainoa Gruspe's practice comes from painting but has been branching out to include different modes of making, including woodworking, sewing and embroidery, and hat making. What he is looking for in his work is a sense of real life, and an exploration of how that has been understood. Gruspe is from Mānoa, Hawaii. He received a BFA from the University of Hawaii in 2017 and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2022.