2025 Awardee | Meleanna aluli meyer

Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025 (HT25) artist Meleanna Aluli Meyer has received the 2025 Golden Hibiscus Award for her immersive installation ʻUmeke Lāʻau – Culture Medicine (2025). Chosen by a jury of curators and arts professionals, Meyer’s work was celebrated for its depth, vision, and powerful connection to the theme of ALOHA NŌ.

“The Golden Hibiscus Award is a privilege that grants us permission to keep dreaming and creating work that will resonate long after,” said Meyer. “The arts have this essence—an aspirational visual voice that calls others to imagine beyond the ordinary, to something extraordinary, precious, and useful.”

Sited at Honolulu Hale, ʻUmeke Lāʻau takes the shape of a larger-than-life ʻumeke, or bowl, spanning more than 20 feet in diameter. The installation invites visitors and holds space for grief and resilience alike. The jurors underscore how the work bridges ancestral knowledge with contemporary urgency, offering a model of how art can create space for resistance, remembrance, and regeneration.

“This work was created with others in mind—entering into this sacred space, offering embrace and an enfolding into the safety of aloha,” said Meyer. “I’ve been a practitioner of ʻike Hawaiʻi for a lifetime, and know the power of aloha nō, in its deepest sense. Being able to honor and share this deepest of our wisdom traditions is an obligation and gift for those who both offer and receive this kind of profound energy.”

The jury also awarded Honorable Mention to HT25 artist Brandon Ng for You May Be Loved (2025), a striking installation at Foster Botanical Garden praised for its fresh perspective on Hawaiʻi’s histories and the allyship embedded in its storytelling.

The 2025 Golden Hibiscus jury brought together a range of expertise across contemporary art and community engagement. Jurors included Jose Diaz, deputy director for art at Seattle Art Museum and former curator at The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Tyler Cann, senior curator of modern and contemporary art at Honolulu Museum of Art; Healoha Johnston, director of cultural resources and curator for Hawaiʻi and Pacific Arts & Culture, Bishop Museum; and Donnie Cervantes, co-director and curator at Aupuni Space, whose work centers local artists and community-based practices. Jurors considered how each nominee’s work resonated with the theme ALOHA NŌ and reflected practices that shape the Pacific and global artistic landscapes today.

These recognitions spotlight artists whose practices resonate deeply—across the Pacific and globally—and we’re honored to uplift their voices through Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025.

[TOP] 2025 Golden Hibiscus Awardee Meleanna Aluli Meyer (middle) with collaborators Amber Khan (left) and Kainoa Gruspe, Mariposa, Honolulu. // [MIDDLE] Scene from 2025 Golden Hibiscus Award reception. // [ABOVE] (from left): Tyler Cann, Rosina Potter, Meleanna Aluli Meyer, Kristen Chan, Brandon Ng, Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, and Josh Tengan. Mariposa, Honolulu.

Photos: Lila Lee