Jonathan Day Nālamakūikapō Ahsing was born on Oʻahu in 1998 and raised in Puʻuloa, ‘Ewa by parents Alan and Karin Ahsing. He is a Kanaka Maoli artist, mahiʻai, and apprentice voyager with Hōkūleʻa. Nālamakū’s work honors the lessons of his teachers, love of his family, and mana of his ʻāina. His work centers ancestral ecological knowledge and cultivates Kānaka Maoli life, land, and sovereignty. His process is his island, the material upon which he asks: What knowledge is encoded through pattern? How do we activate Indigenous wisdom to uplift contemporary solutions? How do we exact a language which embraces interdependence as a vision of the spectacular? Who are we as the ancestors of tomorrow?

Nālamakū’s work is deeply committed to perpetuating his language, history, culture, and community. His work expresses aloha ʻāina through ʻohe kāpala, printmaking, papermaking, sculpture, and biocultural restoration. He currently lives in Waimānalo and serves as the ʻĀina Restoration Coordinator for Kauluakalana, stewarding the lands of Ulupō Heiau and Kawainui Fishpond. He is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools and Williams College (Honors BFA, BS).

Recent exhibitions include: ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters at Leeward and Kapiʻolani Community College, Mai Hoʻohuli ka Lima i Luna at Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, He Noho Pili Kua//He Noho Pili Alo at Aupuni Space, and Unstable Connections at Williams College Museum of Art.