HONOLULU.- The Hawai‘i Triennial is the state’s largest thematic exhibition of contemporary art from Hawai‘i, the Pacific and beyond. The Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) has been a participating venue since the Triennial debuted in 2017. This year, the Museum will host the work of eight Hawai‘i Triennial artists whose practices are formed out of Indigenous heritages and strong matrilineal connections. The installations are on view Feb. 15-May 4, 2025 at HoMA and more than 12 other venues.



The Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 (HT25) brings together the work of 49 artists and artist collectives across multiple sites on O‘ahu, Maui and Hawai‘i Island. Its title—"Aloha Nō”—is a call to know Hawai‘i as a place of rebirth, resilience and resistance. It is a place that embraces humanity in all of its complexities with a compassion that can only be described as aloha. “Nō” is an intensifier in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language). By collapsing that word with the English “no,” two seemingly opposite notions, “Aloha Nō” reclaims aloha from a colonial-capitalist historicity and situates it as a transformative power that is collectively enacted through contemporary art.



The installation at HoMA will include works by several artists, including Edith Amituanai, Teresita Fernández, Hayv Kahraman, Al Lagunero, Gisela McDaniel, Citra Sasmita, Rose B. Simpson and Kanitha Tith. Seven new artworks and a recently produced film contemplate the notion of womanhood as a journey of vulnerability and resiliency, tenderness and strength. Interrogating the female body as a site of violence and colonization and a source of creation and healing through truth telling, “HT25” at HoMA prioritizes the ordinary as extraordinary and underscores the enduring aspects of aloha nō that persevere through adversity.



“HoMA is honored to be a part of Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 to present exciting contemporary art from throughout the Pacific,” said HoMA director and CEO Halona Norton-Westbrook. “As the world faces mounting difficult issues, more than ever people need a connection to art to be able to think in a more empathetic, critical, holistic way. We share Hawai‘i Contemporary’s mission to create transformative art experiences for our community. By collaborating together, our organizations can even more deeply contribute to creating this crucial connection.”



HT25 is organized by Hawai‘i Contemporary and curated by Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Binna Choi and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, the first non-hierarchical trio of curators composed of women of color in the history of the Triennial. As part of an established field of art biennials and triennials around the world, HT25 is an internationally recognized, large-scale exhibition that presents the latest artistic works and explores local-global dialogues through a Hawai‘i- and Pacific-centered lens.



“The past year was profoundly painful for so many of us — locally, nationally and globally,” said Kahanu. “As we thought about the role of contemporary art and the Hawai‘i Triennial, we kept returning to the notion of aloha, as a means of conversing about healing, solidarity and shared humanity. ‘Aloha Nō’ allows us to process grief and emerge more whole and ready to love anew.”