We are excited to welcome Honolulu-based curator Josh Tengan in residence at Open Space at part of Wayfinders, the ones we breathe with. Josh will connect with folks involved in Tide Lines: Coastal Resistance of the 60s and 70s and the Indigenous Emerging Artist Program, as well as present the Orion Lecture in Visual Arts at UVIC.

Josh is a curator, cultural producer and arts administrator from Pauoa, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. He is a generational islander of Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian), Ryu-kyuan and Madeiran descent. His curatorial practice centers on art of Hawaiʻi and Moananuiākea. Tengan currently serves as associate director for Hawaiʻi Contemporary, the non-profit arts organization that presents the Hawaiʻi Triennial, as well as Puʻuhonua Society, one of Hawaiʻi’s longest standing arts organizations.

Current curatorial projects include ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters, an intergenerational exhibition of forty Native Hawaiian contemporary artists across the University of Hawaiʻi system in 2023, co-curated with Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu. He was the Assistant Curator of the second Honolulu Biennial 2019, To Make Wrong / Right / Now, with curator Nina Tonga. From 2015-2019, he organized Hawaiʻi’s largest annual thematic contemporary art exhibition, CONTACT, which offered a critical and comprehensive survey of local visual culture. In 2022, he was a co-editor of the newly released publication CONTACT 2014–2019, which memorialized that effort.

Josh is also a lauhala weaver and alakaʻi with Keanahala, a weaving hui centered on revitalizing practices around traditional Hawaiian moena. He has studied lauhala under various kumu including Mahina and Cheryl Pukahi, Aunty Lorna May Pacheco and Aunty Dee Shimabukuro.