Image: Hawaii State Art Museum, Honolulu
Capitol Modern: the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum in Honolulu is presenting ‘Arts of Oceania’, a mini-exhibition pairing Māori wind instruments and Native Hawaiian and Māori weapons by Kalama Fallau with recently acquired works from the Art in Public Places Collection of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The display runs from August 7 through November 28, 2026.
The exhibition is installed in a ground-floor glass display case across from the museum shop. According to Capitol Modern, Fallau’s instruments and weapons are on loan from the artist, while the accompanying works have recently entered the state’s Art in Public Places collection. The presentation places objects made by a contemporary artist alongside works acquired through Hawaiʻi’s public art programme.
One highlighted acquisition is Anthony Watson’s ‘Enthused and Spiteful Hairpins’, a mixed-media sculpture dated 2025. The work combines guava, Hong Kong orchid, koa, bamboo, oyster shell, black coral, plastic, inorganic dye, 5160 steel and nylon. The State Foundation’s collection record lists the sculpture’s overall dimensions as 15.5 by 18.5 by 3.75 inches and identifies it as object number 6124.
The sculpture was acquired from the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s curated exhibition ‘Ocean of Peace’, which ran from December 6, 2025, to January 29, 2026. It is credited to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts’ Art in Public Places Collection. The title appears in the exhibition newsletter as ‘Oceans of Peace’, while the collection record identifies the exhibition as ‘Ocean of Peace’.
Watson’s collection record describes him as a dual citizen of the United States and Belau (Palau) who has lived on Oʻahu for 23 years. It states that he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and works as a full-time artist. In accompanying text for ‘Enthused and Spiteful Hairpins’, Watson says the grouping was inspired by Hawaiian, Native Alaskan and Belauan (Palauan) material culture, and that the hairpins also function as self-defense implements incorporating elements drawn from traditional weaponry and fishing tools.
‘Arts of Oceania’ forms part of Capitol Modern’s programme of exhibitions drawn from contemporary art in Hawaiʻi and the state’s public collection. Capitol Modern describes itself as Hawaiʻi’s free public art museum. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday; the exhibition remains on view in Honolulu through November 28, 2026.
