Carl F.K. Pao is a Native Hawaiian painter who initiated an ongoing series of exhibits based on the Hawaiian concept of Maka, the most recent of which is Makahā (2016), which showed at The ARTS at Mark’s Garage. Pao was the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Australian National University (ANU) College of Asia and the Pacific in July 2012; concluded a successful group exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in July 2011; was co-owner/operator of the lodestar collective gallery in Kailua; the volunteer Arts Editor for The Contemporary Pacific journal (TCP) from 2008–2011; host and co-producer of the educational art series Art Hunter; and is currently exhibiting in shows both locally and abroad. Pao also works on various commercial and private art commissions.

Born and raised on the island of O‘ahu, Pao graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1989. He earned a BFA at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 1994, with an emphasis in ceramics. Carl received his MFA with first-class honors in 1999 from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa. He returned to Hawai‘i in 2000 to take a full-time teaching position at the Kamehameha Schools High School in the visual arts.