Russell Sunabe was born and raised in Hakalau, an ahupua‘a along the Hamakua Coast of Hawai‘i island. He currently resides in Kaka‘ako, on O‘ahu, maintaining a studio in downtown Honolulu.

Working in oil as his medium, Sunabe paints postmodern allegorical narratives utilizing both figurative and abstract elements from a Hawai‘i and Hawaiian-Creole context. Favorite metaphors have been the wild pig, poi dog, shark, and kalo — but most important are the roles of land and ocean. Stories are drawn from experiences from his life on the island of Hawai‘i and the spirit of place.

Sunabe has exhibited in New York and Paris. In Hawai‘i, he has participated in exhibitions at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Koa Gallery at Kapi‘olani Community College; Capitol Modern; and in Artists of Hawai‘i, including the inaugural Artists of Hawai‘i Biennial at the Honolulu Museum of Art in 2013. Exhibitions of particular interest were the annual CONTACT (2014–2019) curated/juried show and Imago Mundi’s Aloha Spirit, a survey of contemporary artists of Hawai‘i — both of which delved into post-contact relations in Hawai‘i.

He received his MFA degree in Painting from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 1988, followed by an artist-in-residence stint at Hunter College in Manhattan from 1989–90. He is recently retired from Kapi‘olani Community College where he has enjoyed teaching drawing and painting for 27 years.