Kapulani Landgraf

Kapulani Landgraf (born 1966) is a Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) artist who is best known for her work in black-and-white photography. Through a series of photographic essays, objects, and installations, Landgraf celebrates Native Hawaiian culture while also addressing the legacies of colonialism and its impact on indigenous Hawaiian rights, value and history. While her work often centers on the negative impacts of land use and development, she also alludes to the resilience of the land and the indigenous population.

In her 1994 book, Nā Wahi Pana O Ko'olau Poko: Legendary Places of Ko'olau Poko, Landraf refutes the tradition of landscape photography of Hawaiian spaces, instead linking place to native Hawaiian ways of knowing and understanding the sacred.^[1] Her work is political in nature, emphasizing Hawaiian claims to land and speaks against the continued commodification of the islands by settler groups.^[2] Landgraf's work has toured across the United States in the Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation collection. In 2013 Landgraf was awarded the Native Arts and Culture Foundation fellowship. Upon receipt of this award, Landgraf remarked, "The Native Arts and Cultures Artist Fellowship validated artwork created by a Native Hawaiian artist working in Hawai'i on a national scale [...] I hope the national award brings a greater awareness and interest to the realities and injusticies, which continue to occur in Hawai'i and within the Native Hawaiian community. I also hope it inspires and instigates younger Native Hawaiian artists to go beyond the decorative – to give voice and challenge – to push the boundaries – to make people think."^[3] In 2013 the Honolulu Museum of Art exhibited Ponoiwi, a solo exhibition which takes a stand against the decades-long practice of removing sand from Hawaiian beaches, which often desecrates native burial cites.^[4]

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