Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick
AWARDEE: Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick
NATIVE HERITAGE: Kanaka ʻŌiwi
LOCATION: Honolulu, Oʻahu, HI
AWARD: 2021 SHIFT – Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts
DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
WEBSITE: drewbroderick.com
PARTNER ORGANIZATION:
Puʻuhonua Society – BIO
ABOUT
Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick comes from an esteemed family of Native Hawaiian artists and cultural advocates. His grandmother Emma, mother Maile, aunties Mele, Manu, Moana, and Luana have each supported art and artists of Hawaiʻi, individually and collectively, for three generations. His work as a Honolulu-based artist, independent curator, and community educator continues to be led by the actions of these Native women. Currently living in Honolulu, Broderick serves as Director of Koa Gallery at Kapiʻolani Community College and is an Associate Curator of the forthcoming Hawaiʻi Triennial 2022, Pacific Century – E Hoʻomau no Moananuiākea. His curatorial practice seeks to elevate the voices of Indigenous artists in these environments, building platforms for intercultural discourse and exchange.
Broderick is a contributing member of the film collective kekahi wahi. Recently, he completed an MA from the Center of Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Previously, he worked with the artist collective, PARADISE COVE; operated an artist-run venue, SPF Projects; and co-founded the annual open call thematic exhibition, CONTACT, with community arts organizer Maile Meyer. Collaborative curatorial projects in development include I OLA KANALOA with Josh Tengan and Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument as part of a community of Hawaiʻi-based artist practitioners.
It is vital to challenge stereotypical representations of Hawaiʻi and expose the violent legacies of settler colonialism and imperialism that lie beneath these false veneers of leisure.
― Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick (Kanaka ʻŌiwi)
COLLABORATING CURATORS
The SHIFT project will be led by a Native Hawaiian curatorial cohort, including Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, who is a writer, artist, curator, and filmmaker. For fifteen years, she worked at Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Hawaiʻi as a cultural inventory specialist, project manager, and Director of Community Affairs. During this time, she developed more than twenty-five exhibitions featuring over a hundred Native artists and was a member of the project team for the restoration of Bishop Museum’s Hawaiian Hall (2009), Pacific Hall (2013), and the landmark exhibition E Kū Ana Ka Paia (2010). Kahanu is currently an Associate Specialist of Public Humanities and Native Hawaiian Programs within the Department of American Studies at University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa. Her ongoing research and practice explore the liberating and generative opportunities when museums “seed” authority rather than “cede” authority.
They will be joined by curator and writer Josh Tengan, who currently serves as the Associate Director of the arts and culture non-profit, Puʻuhonua Society. Tengan was the Assistant Curator of the second Honolulu Biennial 2019, To Make Wrong / Right / Now. Since 2015, he has worked with Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists to deliver Hawaiʻi’s largest annual thematic contemporary art exhibition, CONTACT, which offers a critical and comprehensive survey of local contemporary visual culture. Tengan holds a Curatorial Studies MA with Distinction from Newcastle University (UK).
PROJECT
Their SHIFT project ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters is a group exhibition centered on an intergenerational cohort of contemporary Native Hawaiian poets, carvers, writers, painters, filmmakers, photographers, publishers, musicians, educators, and organizers. Conscious of the harsh realities that many Native Hawaiian artists face, the exhibition will re-establish a relationship with University of Hawaiʻi, the largest statewide educational system, to present the works of over a dozen Hawaiian artists. Addressing a series of complex historical and present-day contestations over Native Hawaiian self-determination, the multi-part project of existing and commissioned works will gather perspectives on Native Hawaiian self-expression, starting with a renaissance of cultural activity in the 1970’s and continuing until today. With support from the organizational partner, Puʻuhonua Society, the exhibition will take place at five venues on three college campuses within the University of Hawaiʻi system.
PARTNER ORGANIZATION
Puʻuhonua Society creates opportunities for Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists and cultural practitioners to express themselves and engage with and impact audiences. Puʻuhonua supports artists and makers who serve as translators, mediators, and amplifiers of social justice issues in the community. The organization builds capacity in Hawaiʻi’s contemporary arts ecosystem by providing opportunities to create and exhibit; access to work and exhibition space; access to mentorship and professional critique; and contemporary art and cultural learning to a wide audience in Hawaiʻi.
