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Maika'i Tubbs
American, born 1979
CountryHawaii, United States
BiographyMaikai'i Tubbs graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1995 and received his BFA from the University of Hawaii in 2002. His work has been featured at the Bishop Museum, the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, the Hawaii State Art Museum, the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, the United Nations in New York, and, most recently, in the exhibition This IS Hawaii, hosted by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.In his work, Tubbs transforms mundane disposable materials into enchanting installations, taking what was once ubiquitous and durable and rendering it fragile and exquisite. Poppy Culture is made of plastic utensils in hues of green, yellow, and tangerine orange, which have been melted down, stretched and modeled into plant forms, and affixed to the gallery floor like a patch of mock poppies. Made of material that is readily obtainable and ultimately expendable, the flowers confront society's consumerism, even as they, paradoxically, evoke its obsession with sustainability and anxiety over the fate of natural environment. Meant to be installed on the floor without barriers, the poppies' vulnerability to the trampling feet of errant museum visitors offers a wry commentary on the often antagonistic relationship between art and the spectator in the gallery setting.
Neither Seward nor Tubbs is represented in the Academy's collection; acquiring their work will round out our holdings in Hawaii’s most important contemporary artists.
Theresa Papanikolas
Curator of European and American Art (2011)
Person TypeIndividual
