Kainoa Gruspe

Kainoa Gruspe is a painter and sculptor based in Honolulu whose layered works investigate value, duration, and absurdity within contemporary painting. Using drywall compound, sedimentary buildup, and naïve mark-making, Gruspe engages in a critical and often humorous conversation with art history, pitting surface against symbol, innocence against labor. His practice draws from postwar materiality and conceptual painting, while remaining grounded in the complexities of land use and development in Hawai‘i. Gruspe holds an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art in London and a BFA from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His work has been shown internationally in London, Croatia, and Cyprus, and widely across Hawai‘i in solo and group exhibitions.