Cocoons hang from the ceiling in a gallery at Capitol Modern in Downtown Honolulu. Light casts a shadow onto a white platform, where they appear entangled in the web-like art piece.

From the surface, the cocoons are separated by their pods. But beneath it, they’re all connected.

“There’s this movement of shadow and line that one loss affects many,” said Sonya Kelliher-Combs, the artist behind “Idiot Strings.”

Kelliher-Combs is one of 49 artists whose artworks are on display at the Hawai‘i Triennial, the largest thematic art installation in the state with locations across O‘ahu, Maui, and Hawai‘i Island.

The 78-day event brings artists from around the world, including those from Indigenous populations. This year, some artworks created by Indigenous people embody intergenerational trauma and suicide in communities.

Kelliher-Combs, of Iñupiaq and Athabasca descent from Alaska, has been working on her piece “Idiot Strings” for more than 20 years. She created it in memory of her three uncles who died by suicide.

“It’s something that people don’t talk about, especially in native communities because of colonization and the church,” she said. “It’s considered shameful.”

She added that she wanted to remember her family and friends “who had fallen to this epidemic in our populations.”

Kelliher-Combs said the strings are tethers used to hang mittens. She said the attached sculptural pockets suggest an absent body.

She created the piece using commercial sheep rawhide, which is rigid when it dries. Then, she sews and stuffs it to create cocoon-like mittens. Once they dry, she paints them using acrylic.

In addition, the ropes are made of sheep wool, and the final step is dipping them in beeswax.

Kelliher-Combs underscored the process of creating her work. She often spent time working by herself or accompanied by family and friends.

“We need to talk about this hard stuff and bring it to light so people can move on from it and heal,” she said.

A legacy left behind

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Indigenous communities in the U.S., according to a study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. The rates increased by 40% between 2010 and 2020.

The late Native Hawaiian master carver Rocky KaʻiouliokahihikoloʻEhu Jensen died by suicide in 2023. Several of his carvings, which are ki‘i or images representing Hawaiian Gods, are on display at Capitol Modern.

In the 1970s, he and his wife, Lucia Tarallo, established Hale Nauā III, a Native Hawaiian arts organization that supports Native Hawaiian artists.

Jensen was described as a contemporary artist who used his art to educate his community. Tarallo said Jensen was an active critic of art institutions that refused to purchase Native Hawaiian art.

His artworks capture images of what Hawaiians looked like prior to the colonization of the islands.

Tarallo said Jensen was diagnosed with bipolar depression.

“He dedicated his life to not only his art but controlling himself,” she said.

Tarallo said Jensen left a legacy without realizing he left it in the first place.

“He felt that he had failed,” she said. “He died feeling that. Even if one person in the audience was listening, that was a boon to our soul. To Rocky, he wanted all of his people to listen.”

Tarallo said his last words were: “My culture let me down.”

Dealing with intergenerational trauma 

On the second floor of Davies Pacific Center, a video shows a woman washing three white walls. There was nobody talking — just the texture of sound.

Nanci Amaka, an interdisciplinary artist from Nigeria, is the artist behind “Cleanse | Three Walls.”

The art piece pays homage to Amaka’s mother, who was killed in Nigeria when Amaka was 4 years old. She didn’t find out about her mother’s death until she was in her 20s, after she reconciled with her mother’s side of the family. That was after she and her family migrated to the U.S. from Nigeria in the 1990s.

“I carried around a lot of anger,” she said.

Growing up, Amaka’s mother was never mentioned in her household. In fact, her father got rid of all the photos of her.

She said she didn’t pry about how her mother was killed, but she often has bad dreams about it. She dealt with her mother’s death on her own — by not talking about it.

Amaka started her piece in 2017 at the Ward Warehouse before it was demolished. At the time, she was pregnant with her daughter. Three tripods were set up to record her.

She metaphorically cleans the space, adding that it’s minimal and quiet.

When the audience views the piece, she wishes to provide a quiet space for them to reflect on their trauma and heal from it.

“They have an excuse to think about the people they’ve lost and engage with those memories,” she said. “They can take a deep breath and allow themselves to feel whatever they felt in that moment.”

Behind the theme Aloha Nō

Noelle Kahanu, a co-curator of the Hawai‘i Triennial, said the artworks fit around the theme of Aloha Nō.

She said the artists draw attention to the harms and injustices happening in various communities.

“It’s about how artists within our midst are identifying the cracks and fractures that surround us,” she said.

Instead of the Hawaiian diacritical mark kahakō over the “o”, Kahanu said it’s replaced with pewa, a butterfly-shaped patch often used in woodwork. Pewa is often used to seal a crack in a ‘umke bowl.

She used the artists as examples.

“They’re offering wellness or healing through the pewa that we can take away from these exhibitions and the works of these artists with a sense of hope and not despair,” she said.

Nate Smith and HARDY not only work together as country music artists in Nashville, they are friends. That is part of what makes their latest releases so awkward.

They both teased new songs at the exact same time that sound (almost) exactly the same. It does not help the narrative that all mainstream country songs are alike.

This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened and it is not specific to country music. There are only there are 12 unique notes in the Western musical alphabet (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B). There are only so many ways to arrange those 12 notes.

However, most of the country music songs that play on the radio today follow a similar algorithm. And there is a lot of crossover in Music City when it comes to songwriters, producers, etc. It is very possible that two different artists could work with the same group of people to write a song, which leads to the sharing of the same ideas, which eventually leads to two different songs in the same general style.

I am not sure if that is what caused the similarities between Nate Smith and HARDY’s new singles. I reached out to a few people around Nashville who might be in the know but they do not know either.

This whole thing started last Monday when HARDY teased a new song on Instagram.

Over the years, AOS has expanded in visitor numbers and events.

Mainstreet Whanganui general manager and AOS event co-ordinator Charlie Meyerhoff said many of the event’s visitors were from Wellington.

She also noticed multiple large groups of women from Auckland who had solidified AOS as an annual “girls’ trip” destination.

“A lot of money went through this city over the last 10 days. For the Whanganui economy, I think it was sensational,” she said.

A few years ago the starting point exhibition had about 600 visitors over the two weekends, but this year the first Saturday alone had 800 people visit the gallery, Meyerhoff said.

“It was phenomenal how many groups we had here,” she said.

Originally, the event was confined to two weekends but activities throughout the week in between have expanded AOS to a 10-day affair.

Initially, there was concern it would be a waste of time to open the studios during the week, but Meyerhoff said its success had been proven with one studio making more than $1200 from a single group on Wednesday.

Meyerhoff hoped that in the future, businesses outside the art industry would get involved by hosting their own events in the evenings.

“What we are encouraging is for other businesses in the city to realise they’ve got 10 days where we’ve got this audience coming from all over and it would be cool if they put their own events on,” she said.

“It’s not just one sector that benefits.”

The latest addition to AOS was a youth-led mural project.

Meyerhoff was inspired by a speech at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre by 19-year-old Seth Raela, who said there were not enough opportunities for young artists in Whanganui.

This year she recruited Raela to do a mural for AOS in the alley connecting Victoria Ave and St Hill St.

“Over the last year we’ve been really scratching our heads about what we can do,” Meyerhoff said.

“He’s made it something quite public, and quite big and bold to get the rest of his age group interested and inspire them.”

The mural depicts sea creature silhouettes over a colourful background, reflecting the AOS 2025 theme, “Aramoana”.

Raela and Auckland-based artist Aleisha Roulston began creating the mural over the past weekend.

“I would now love to see this become a thing where every year that age group can submit work and once a piece gets picked and we find building owners in the CBD that will allow us to paint a mural,” Meyerhoff said.

Vinsen said AOS brought people to Whanganui not just for 10 days but permanently.

“We know for a fact that people come from out of town and realise that Whanganui is where they want to live,” she said.

She attributed this to the event being spread throughout Whanganui, allowing people to explore the suburbs and experience the culture and community.

“I think city-wide this is really important, we know that this is really important.”

Visen attributed the ongoing and growing success of AOS to the passion of the board, the participating artists and the attendees.

“They’re passionate about the event and Whanganui,” she said.

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.

Ed Sheeran has been backed by the UK’s leading artists like Harry Styles and Stormzy in a heartfelt appeal to the UK government for increased music education funding

Ed Sheeran is known for his musical penmanship but now he’s taking it to politics. The singer has written an open letter to Keir Starmer and the UK government in a bid to save music education in Britain.

The letter has been signed by over 600 other artists and industry leaders, including the likes of Harry Styles, Stormzy, Elton John and Central Cee, who are appealing for a £250 million music education package to repair “decades of dismantling music”.

The UK music industry raked in a record revenue of £1.49 billion last year, on the back of Covid-delayed tours by superstar artists such as Coldplay, Elton John – and Ed Sheeran himself. However, with the decline of grassroots venues, musicians are arguing that young talent needs government support.

READ MORE: Sir Elton John slams X Factor as ‘worst thing that can happen to you’ in music industry

According to a report by the Music Venue Trust (MVT), a shocking four in 10 grassroots music venues are operating at a loss. In addition, there has been an 8.3% year-on-year decline in live music shows and a 13.5% reduction in ticket revenues across these music spaces.

“As an industry, we bring in £7.6bn into the UK economy, yet the next generation is not there to take the reins,” Sheeran said in his open letter to the Prime Minister. His reference to the music industry’s income is also a nod to his own impact on the economy as an artist. Indisputably, Ed Sheeran is one of the UK’s most successful musical exports. In 2017, his best-selling album Divide, which featured global hits like Shape of You, was credited with causing a 7% rise in music industry revenue.

That year also saw Dua Lipa rise to become the most-streamed female artist on Spotify – beating out pop titans such as Taylor Swift and Beyonce. However, the music scene has since seen a drastic downturn, with last year becoming first in over 20 years without a UK global top 10 single or album reaching the charts. Sheeran argued that this is partly down to children not getting enough opportunities to develop their skills in the classroom.

“Learning an instrument and getting up on stage – whether in school or a community club – is now a luxury not every child can afford,” Sheeran wrote. He continued: “The time to act is now. State schools – which educate 93 per cent of the country’s children – have seen a 21 per cent decrease in music provision.”

As part of his newly-launched Ed Sheeran Foundation, the singer is campaigning for five key areas of growth. He wants increased music funding in schools, training for music teachers, funding for grassroots venues, music apprenticeships and a diverse music curriculum.

Ed Sheeran’s appeal follows on from two speeches made at last month’s BRIT Awards by Myles Smith and Ezra Collective, in which they also urged the UK government to address the demise of grassroots venues and music funding.

The singer’s appeal was also made to the departments of Culture, Education, Foreign Office, Health and Social Care and Business and Trade. Ed Sheeran also cited the work of Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who has made a 10-point plan to help revive music education in schools.

With a new generation of artists – Fontaines D.C., Kneecap, Lankum, Sprints, The Murder Capital and more – going from strength to strength, both at home and internationally, the Irish music scene has never been been stronger, more diverse, or more fertile. And another new wave of excellent bands is set to surge into view over the coming 12 months.

Here are ten of the best new artists on the island worth investigating now before the masses inevitably catch on.

Ria Rua

“My hope is that my music helps people exorcise their demons,” says Meath-born Ria Rua, and the drummer-turned alt.rock star pulls no punches on her forthcoming debut album SCAPEG.O.A.T., not least on current single Black And Tan, a song about “the rise of the modern sociopath”, drawing parallels between Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the much-hated Black and Tans, a British paramilitary group infamous for their violence and brutality during the Irish War of Independence. Drawing influences from Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth and Bjork, the buzz aound Ria Rua (‘Red Queen’) will be amplified from a whisper to a scream this year.

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Hotgirl

By Sharon Rosse — For Capital City Arts Initiative’s exhibition, Nevada Artists Association Invitational 2025, the organization shared art by 28 member artists who present a wide array of images and visions in their work.

The Invitational is in the Carson City Community Center’s Crowell Board Room, as of Feb. 24 and will continue until June 26, 2025. CCAI will host a reception for the artists on Monday, March 24, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. with artists’ introductions at 5:30 p.m. The Community Center is located at 851 E William Street, Carson City. The Crowell Board Room is open for all the city’s public meetings and upon request.

The participating artists include: Lana Boler, Paula Rie Bonham, Pam Brekas, Jackie Pias Carlin, Ken Clarke, Kristy Dial, Joanna Drakos, Deborah Foster, Deborah Graham, Reta Hanks, Mark Harris, Cliff Helm, Mariann Humphrey, John Kallestad, Debbie Lambin, Laura Lawrence, Bruce Nelson, Heather Nicole, Rick Pott, Colleen Reynolds, Katie Rosenquist, Terri Russ, Margaret Stillwell, Andrew C. Strom, Tabatha Theiss, Lia Verkade, John Warden Jr., and Wendy Whyman.

NAA is a 501c(6) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and advancing visual, creative art to be shared with the community. It encourages a high standard of art through an ongoing series of art shows in its gallery for members and guest artists while offering workshops and outreach programs that are open to the public. In addition, their gallery serves as a stop on the monthly First Saturday Wine Walk, a popular program hosted by Carson City’s Downtown Business Association.

The Nevada Artists’ Association, originally formed in 1950, has been active in Carson City since 1979 at their gallery on the Brewery Arts Center’s campus, 449 W. King Street. The NAA Gallery is open Tuesday – Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. The organization presents membership shows as well as judged art shows, each running about six weeks. NAA hosts artists receptions for each judged exhibit. Information about the NAA is available on their website: https://nevadaartists.org/

CCAI is an artist-centered not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, illustrated talks, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Initiative is funded by the John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Carson City Cultural Commission, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.

For additional information, please visit CCAI’s website at www.ccainv.org.

Related

The Art Student Association met March 11 for the fourth Artist of the Month luncheon of the 2024-2025 school year at the Chippewa Club in Iron Mountain. Sarah Rice was the local artist for this lunch. Rice brought shadow boxes, tumbled sea glass, markers and more for the artists to create imagery using the sea glass. Congratulations to all the talented artists this month. Those students honored include, from left, front row: Jayda Hunter, Norway High School; Gerilis Sampoll-Torres, Iron Mountain High School, Brooke Adlebush, Goodman-Armstrong Creek High School; back row: Kylee DeVore, West Iron County High School; Taylor Koski, Kingsford High School; Alex Bennett, Beecher-Dunbar-Pembine High School, Bryn Sullivan, Florence High School; Rosie Freeman, Niagara High School. The ASA show is April 14 at Kingsford High School. The gallery viewing begins at 4 p.m. and they hope to see you there. They are also inviting any of the past art teachers who helped ASA throughout the years.

There’s one name in the Phoenix art scene that everyone knows — and it’s not the most famous artist in town. It’s Lisa Sette, owner of the Lisa Sette Gallery.

You know you’ve arrived as an artist when your work lands in there — it’s a rarefied group including luminaries and statement-makers like Mayme Kratz, Angela Ellsworth and Mark Klett.

Her first gallery was in Tempe, and for many years she’s been in an Al Beadle-designed building in central Phoenix. But, she first really made her mark on the art world here as a pioneer of the Scottsdale gallery scene. Though it’s known for its cowboy oil paintings and desert landscapes, that’s not the kind of work that gets Sette excited.

She champions artists who have something to say — whether it be political, or whether it be William Wegman, famous for his artistic portraits of his own Weimaraner dogs.

This year, she’s celebrating her gallery’s 40th anniversary — an incredible legacy in an ever-changing Valley and an ever-underestimated art scene.

Sette joined The Show to talk about her legacy and her approach to art. She came to the state as an Arizona State University student in 1978 because she was interested in learning from a particular professor — a British photo historian named Bill Jay. At the time, Sette said, she thought she was going to be an artist herself.

Full conversation

LISA SETTE: And then as soon as I graduated, I realized that I was more interested in what other people had to say than what I had to say because of a fairly traditional normal upbringing and I, I just didn’t think I was that interesting so I was living in a house with six roommates, so seven of us total.

It was an old house that belonged to the first Tempe printer, I think. And we had no furniture, so there was, you know, nothing in the living room. And I thought, well, this is such a nice empty space with all this wall space, I should have an exhibition of my fellow artists. And so that must have been probably 1978 or 1979. Maybe that was my first gallery or idea of a gallery, but I knew, I knew as soon as I graduated that I didn’t really want to be an artist, but I needed to be close to art and in, in the arts.

LAUREN GILGER: OK, so you have your first quote unquote gallery show in your house, right? What did that feel like? Do you remember sort of getting a thrill out of being the curator, being the person to put this together?

SETTE: That’s a great question, great way to look at it. Of course I didn’t realize what I was doing at the time, but I must have loved it because I, I think I remember I liked organizing it. I liked the outcome. I mean there weren’t any sales or anything, but I liked how things looked and I liked that I was, you know, trying to elevate other people’s work.

GILGER: So you begin there and then you take it into, you know, the most successful gallery career in, in Phoenix, right? Like, how did you kind of make the leap from, you know, a house show into opening your own gallery?

SETTE: Well, I started as soon as I graduated, working with my ex-husband Joe Segura, and we opened a print publishing company and then that sort of easily sort of morphed into a gallery space for me in a little part of the front part of the shop. And I realized that prints, you know, fine art prints really weren’t, that wasn’t my thing and, and I wanted to show, you know, originals. So that was probably back in 1981. I’ve been an employer since 1981. I was in my like early 20s as an employer, which is really silly.

GILGER: But there must have been, I wonder, I wonder about this because so much of what you do right is relationships with artists and then relationships with buyers. So it’s a lot about people. How did you start to shape your language and your thinking about not just talking to people who might want to buy a piece of art, but talking to artists about how they sell it?

SETTE: I like people and I like connecting people and I like that artists think in a way that most people don’t. And that there are many people who are responsive to that type of thought and so I think my joy was in putting them together.

GILGER: Let me just ask you a couple of questions about sense of place, right? Like what you do is located here, right, physically, but I also know that you’ve worked with artists over the years that are from here.

You brought up artists from here and you’ve worked with a lot of artists that kind of deal with that idea like whether it’s an immigration kind of sensibility or if it’s somebody who wants to talk about the environment, sustainability, these sorts of issues that really ring true in Arizona. How do you view the artists you choose, the people you work with, and the place that you’re in?

SETTE: I’m gonna go back to the show we had before this one, which took place in October and it was timed for the election and it was called “Grand Canyon From Dreams to Memory.” And we decided to focus on immigration because I thought that was an important issue as it related to the impending election, and we chose seven artists from six different countries and I wanted their perspective on something that I personally sort of took for granted the Grand Canyon.

I mean, I had the privilege of being born in the United States. I went to the canyon once. I looked over it was magnificent and I came home and didn’t really think that much about it again. And so that brought artists from many different countries, but some of whom are, are here in Arizona, too.

The West has always attracted artists for many different reasons, the light, the landscape, and so we do work with a pretty great group of, you know, artists that happen to be based in Arizona.

GILGER: I mean, I wonder that because so much of what you think of when you think of the art scene and especially in Old Town Scottsdale there is Western art, right, which is not what you do. I wonder about the, the, the kind of going with trends or understanding where the headwinds are taking you and then sort of saying, no, I’m gonna show this instead because this is the artist I think is good.

SETTE: Well, we don’t follow trends we never have because I’m just not that hip and I’m kind of in my own little world and so I’m, I’m focusing on what interests me at the time and maybe that has to do with what’s happening in the world politically, you know, socially.

But I’ll also say that my idea of a Western artist is probably different than other people’s idea of a Western artist. Like my idea of a Western artist could be James Turrell, who’s working with, you know, the the extinct volcano, the crater up in northern Arizona, or for instance Mark Klett, who’s in our, both of whom are in our anniversary show.

And, you know, Mark’s looking at it from a geological perspective and and time, you know, time in the West maybe moves a little slower. You know, so I, I feel like we do show some Western artists, but they’re not, it’s, it’s not a traditional Western art that most people, you know, might, might think of.

GILGER: I want to ask you about the, the, I guess for lack of a better phrase, the art scene in Arizona in Phoenix and the valley, because you’ve been a part of it for so long and an important part of it for so long.

How do you view us in the national or international art world? Do people still think you’re crazy to try to sell fine art in Arizona?

SETTE: Yes.

GILGER: Simple as that. 

SETTE: I, I mean, there’s a big art scene here. But again, it’s, I, I don’t want to say stigmatized, but it’s, it’s sort of put into a niche of maybe it’s the advertising that’s, that’s done around a lot of the art. And especially in Scottsdale. And it’s, it’s more traditional and it seems like they’re not really up to date with what’s really happening here in the art scene and we don’t have a lot of art criticism here that then reaches to a broader audience, you know, outside of the state so that makes it difficult to break the stereotype.

GILGER: Let me ask you about the idea of abstract versus, you know, something that’s more realistic or has a purpose in a very, in a more obvious way I guess. I wonder this about art because so much of art is subjective, right? And your job is to be sort of objective about this subjective thing and say this is what is good. You’re the arbiter of that, right? How do you know? How do you like, do you ever think you’ve had misses?

SETTE: Sure, probably had lots of misses. I mean, I guess the way that I would describe it is that I’m looking for an artist who’s the reason for creating it is sincere and, and, and they’re compelled to make it. They have to make it. They have to get a message out and the message is often personal, but then that personal message opens up to being something universal.

And I’m also looking like to see is the medium that you’re working in, does it make sense for what your message is, you know, for what you’re trying to get across? I’m looking for something that I, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I need a, a, a new medium or a new message that where they coalesce and they teach me something in a way that, you know, that I just respond to at a gut level. So the gut level probably comes first and then and then all the intellectual stuff happens after that.

But I’m, you know, I’m interested in people’s stories, like what’s, what compelled you to make this work? What was so important about your background or your experience that you had to create something for yourself, but then also to be brave enough to take out into the world?

GILGER: Is that how you view your role as, as the person, kind of the behind the scenes person who’s, who’s finding and choosing and, and displaying this work?

SETTE: I, yeah, I think maybe I was born in the 1860s or something like, you know, as an explorer and, you know, and to tread lightly on, you know, new land, but, but to discover things.

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• Spotify has launched a new playlist in its Live Events feed called Concerts Near You
• The new feature will make it easier for you to see which artists are touring in your area
• As well as including songs based on your listening habits, each song has a link that takes you to third-party booking platforms to secure tickets

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Though Spotify has rubbed music fans the wrong way with its lack of lossless audio (I’m still waiting for you Spotify HiFi), there’s no doubt that people use it enough for it to still be considered one of the best music streaming services. When it comes to live music, Spotify is aiming to bring you closer to your favorite artists with its new Concerts Near You playlist feature.

Combining informative and personalized features, Spotify’s Concerts Near You playlist aims to help you discover upcoming concerts in your area while providing expandable track links to third party ticket sites such as Ticketmaster, AXS, See Tickets, and Dice so that you can secure yourself a place in the crowd. The playlist is updated every Wednesday based on your listening habits, bringing you 30 fresh songs from artists with scheduled shows in your area.

In Spotify’s announcement, the platform went into detail about the app’s newest addition claiming that “There’s nothing worse than realizing that your favorite artist played your town last week”.