Dane Nakama

Dane Hiʻipoi Nakama (b. 1999, Honolulu) is a Japanese-Uchinanchu ceramicist, painter, and educator whose work bridges local aesthetics, folklore, and decolonial critique. Raised on Oʻahu and currently based on Tongva land (Los Angeles), they hold a BFA from CalArts and are pursuing an MFA in Ceramics at UCLA. Nakama co-founded fishschool Hawaiʻi, a community arts school and ceramic studio.

Approach. Nakama’s interdisciplinary practice is “highly referential and disarmingly tender,” using cuteness and fairytale structures to make conceptual work approachable. A visual lexicon of AstroTurf, li hing mui, jalousie windows, sand, shells, and clay geckos addresses settler colonialism, ancestral memory, and island identity. In Niu Systems, shells, pumice, and sand are embedded directly into the panels, collapsing image and shoreline into one plane.

Selected works & exhibitions. Mukashi Mukashi (2021, The Gallery at Hawaii Theatre); Dear Uncle Tani, on his grand-uncle, a WWII soldier-artist (Kaiao Space, 2025; Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, 2026). Box Jelly artist-in-residence (2020–21).

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Website
Instagram
Interview (FLUX)
Grand Central Art Center exhibition