Mariah Ke'olani
Mariah Keʻolani is a multidisciplinary artist whose vibrant abstractions explore movement and imagination, shaped by her Hawaiian childhood and global travels.
Message
Mariah Keʻolani began exploring art at fourteen and developed her skills through intensive programs in the Hamptons. A formative period living in Aix-en-Provence at seventeen immersed her in the landscapes and culture that inspired Cézanne and Picasso, shaping her visual sensibility.
She studied creative advertising at the University of Texas at Austin, where she investigated conceptual approaches to art and its potential for social impact. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows and nontraditional gallery spaces in New York City and the Hamptons. Alongside her studio practice, she has taught extensively, leading workshops for nonprofits and private classes that emphasize creativity, expression, and transformation.
Keʻolani resides in New York, drawing inspiration from her Hawaiian childhood, her work with children, and the experiences of her global travels, which continue to inform the vitality and imagination of her work.
Statement
Mariah Keʻolani’s work is a vibrant exploration of gesture, color, and form. Across painting, sculpture, and performance, she constructs immersive compositions that balance intuitive movement with deliberate abstraction. Her practice investigates the dialogue between the adult and child within us, foregrounding imagination as a vital and often overlooked creative force.
Her canvases are animated by fluid curvatures, dynamic shapes, and symbolic motifs that evoke storytelling and memory. Drawing inspiration from her Hawaiian upbringing, personal history, and experiences of travel, Keʻolani’s work merges subconscious imagery with bold, expressive abstraction to create immersive visual landscapes that reflect both internal and external worlds.
In a contemporary context increasingly dominated by technology and automated image-making, her art asserts the irreplaceable value of human expression. Each mark, form, and sculptural element embodies lived experience and intuition, emphasizing the sensory and emotional dimensions of creation. Through this engagement, Keʻolani reclaims play, freedom, and imagination as essential acts, inviting viewers to reconnect with their own capacity for wonder and self-expression.
Ultimately, her work is both a reflection and an invitation: to experience color and form as living forces, to encounter the subconscious as a site of discovery, and to remember the childlike delight at the heart of creativity.