Polynesian artists

Long before internet was a thing, images of French Polynesia would travel the world through the paintings of master-painter Paul Gauguin. His brush captured the essence of Polynesian living: wild, abundant and graceful.

Just like Gauguin before them, many contemporary Polynesian artists find an infinite source of inspiration in their home islands: the colors and the light, the heavenly landscapes, the people, their features and their ways.

Tehina

?Tehina’s paintings embody what it means to be a Polynesian in this modern society. A couple falling in love under a waterfall, a Tahitian bringue (party) filled with laughter and singalongs, a gorgeous vahine (woman) brushing her long brown hair under the moonlight. These are some of the subjects Tehina likes to depict. All of these sprout from Tehina’s imaginary world but every Polynesian can easily identify with them. Along with a naive drawing style, his canvases display an overload of colors and esoteric details that one can only fall in love with.

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Tahe

?Tahe is undoubtedly the most talented Polynesian artist when it comes to plastic art. He is a master in his craft and his sense of creativity is unlike anything else we have seen in Tahiti. He creates beautiful and mind-boggling artistic objects that, on one hand, draw from the Polynesian world, and on the other, wouldn’t completely be out of place in a renowned modern art museum in New York or Paris. Some of Tahe’s recent pieces of art that completely blew our minds include a bright red fire extinguisher turned into an octopus, a provocative middle finger made out of dead corals, and an exquisite monster skull decorated with seashells.

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Yiling Changues

Yiling’s art is both soothing and powerful. As a French Polynesian with Chinese origins, she has her very unique way of addressing the topic of mixed identities. In doing so, she touches the heart of so many Polynesians who, just like her, feel like they belong in more than one place and nowhere at the same time. A highly educated young woman, Yiling also tackles deep societal issues through the poems that often accompany her drawings and paintings. Her style is very delicate, usually drawing?fine lines with a black pencil, only adding a pop of primary colors when necessary. We adore her series on?Polynesian sea shells and Tahitian vahine (women).

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HTJ

HTJ is a Polynesian street artist that evolved out of the street while sticking to a distinctive urban vibe. HTJ's art is unmistakably Polynesian: he uses designs that are commonly found in Polynesian tattoos, he incorporates Polynesian figures such as the tiki (sacred statue), and his color palette is bright just like the vibrant nature of French Polynesia. Over the past few years, everybody has come to know of HTJ for his signature pieces: upcycled surfboards sculpted into colorful pieces of art, exactly the kind of decoration one would proudly hang in a Tahitian beach house.

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Lova?na Guirao

Although trained as a master perfumer, a discipline that draws a lot from science, Lova?na has always been a true artist at heart. When she finally decided to equally embrace both paths, she invented an art form that only she could excel in so well. As she creates a new fragrance from scratch, she also envisions the painting that best embodies the perfume she is making. In the end, both elements function as a whole. Lova?na’s art invites us to step into an abstract world that triggers sensations directly connected to Polynesia: the exhilarating smell of tropical flowers, the light seabreeze that blows on a sunny Sunday, the moist grass on a morning walk and more.

Written by Pauline Sillinger