Kai Hana Art is light and color, giving life and breath to form and texture.
Each work is an invitation to move about, look closely, and discover — a sculptural painting of layered mesh within a freestanding hardwood column, made to be experienced in three-dimensional space. Inspired by Japanese and Hawaiian traditions, we create entirely unique art and framing that celebrates nature and makes lasting connections between the viewer, material, and story.
Kūpono Dialogues I, II, III
Layered Sculptural Paintings
Kūpono Dialogues are based on a sculptural painting format developed by Kai Hana Art. Each work consists of two individually framed paintings — layered, subtly spaced apart, and assembled within a unified wooden structure — standing upright on a robust base of reclaimed monkey pod. The form invites movement, contemplation, and relational viewing.
Rooted in the Hawaiian concept of kūpono — to stand in balance and with integrity — these works offer more than visual conversation. They serve as meditative exchanges between elements, cultures, and materials: a dialogue between ocean and land, flow and foundation. The format echoes the spirit of traditional Japanese byōbu screens and reimagined seigaiha patterns, while grounding itself in the upright presence of Hawaiian landforms and ʻāina-inspired coloration.
Medium: acrylic on mesh
Edition: 2024-2025
Edition: series of three; each one-of-a-kind
Framing: mahogany or wenge; reclaimed monkey pod
Sizes:
– mahogany, 75″h x 39″w x 9″d (191 x 99 x 23 cm)
– wenge, 71″h x 41″w x 7″d (180 x 104 x 18 cm)
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Evening Views of Kai
Kakoi Art Column
Evening Views of Kai is a four-sided, free-standing sculptural painting composed of painted surfaces and carved wood. Two sides feature white acrylic on mesh, a third on canvas — all set against black grounds suggesting the quiet depth of evening. The fourth side, on canvas, is shaped from sculpted mahogany into a flowing wave form, unpainted but expressive. Across the column, a reimagined seigaiha motif unfolds—its arcs and currents translating kai, the sea, into a layered visual language of memory, movement, and stillness held in form.
Inspired by the early kakoi (囲い) enclosures of Japanese tea tradition — temporary spaces for gathering and ceremony — this work reimagines that architecture as a space for reflection and presence. Open yet delineated, it invites the viewer to step inside and engage with shifting light, transparency, and material rhythm. It is both a space-defining object and a transformable experience: a sculptural dialogue between tradition and change, where form becomes a vessel for reflection and connection.
Medium: acrylic on mesh, canvas
Edition: 2025
Edition: single, one-of-a-kind
Framing: mahogany
Size: when closed, 78″h x 33″w x 33″d (198 x 84 x 84 cm)
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Ala Moana Last Embrace
Kakoi Art Column
Ala Moana Last Embrace is a four-sided painting rendered on translucent mesh and washed in the warm afterglow of a Hawaiian sunset. Tangerine and sun-kissed gold melt into deep sapphire and indigo, capturing that fleeting moment when sky and sea yield to twilight. The mesh shimmers as light shifts, softening edges and creating an ethereal veil through which color both glows and recedes — much like the last touch of sunlight on Ala Moana’s shoreline.
Drawing on Kai Hana Art’s kakoi-inspired format, this work is both a continuous painting and functional spatial enclosure. Viewers are invited to step close and around the form, witnessing how each face unfolds in a choreography of hue and movement. It can be configured as an intimate enclosure — panels facing inward — or unfolded into a sweeping four-panel screen that echoes the open Hawaiian horizon.
Medium: acrylic on mesh
Edition: 2024
Edition: single, one-of-a-kind
Framing: mahogany
Size: when closed, 78″h x 33″w x 33″d (198 x 84 x 84 cm)
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This work has sold. Please let us know if you would like to commission a new piece.
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Waves at Matsushima
Kakoi Art Enclosure
Waves at Matsushima is a large-scale, four-sided art enclosure that envelops the viewer in a continuous, immersive composition. Inspired by the iconic byōbu screen of the same name by 17th-century Rinpa master Sōtatsu, this work reimagines the original’s rhythmic abstraction of ocean and islets through a contemporary lens. Rendered in layered shades of seafoam blue, emerald green, red earth, and shimmering gold, the piece evokes the tonal depth of the Hawaiian ʻāina, blending natural color with Sōtatsu’s enduring vision. The result is a dialogue where forms shared by Japan and Hawaiʻi are translated not as representation, but as gesture, atmosphere, and emotion.
In keeping with Kai Hana Art’s sculptural approach, this piece functions as both painting and spatial environment — a contemporary kakoi (囲い) enclosure that honors classical form while offering a space for movement and quiet reflection. The viewer is invited to enter or circle the work, observing how each face unfolds in rhythm with the next. Designed to adapt, it can be arranged as an inward-facing enclosure to create an intimate interior space, or opened into a expansive, four-panel screen. Waves at Matsushima is not a replica but a reawakening: a meditative interpretation of a revered landscape, reimagined through contemporary materials, palette, and scale.
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Edition: 2025
Edition: single, one-of-a-kind
Framing: mahogany
Size: when closed, 78″h x 68″w x 68″d (198 x 173 x 173 cm)
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