Angaea Cuna

Angaea Cuna is a multi-media artist and Filipino immigrant focusing on fiber arts, bookbinding, and immersive installation. By practicing a bio-centric process and the use of natural materials, Angaea resurfaces her ancestry’s connection to nature, producing work layered with personal narrative and historical research. Angaea’s works aim to unearth the extensive culture of her Filipino ancestry that has been lost throughout foreign colonization and religious inquisition, as well as ignite conversations about the Pacific Island Diaspora and undocumented individuals in the United States. Within the refuge of her art, Angaea hopes to find a sense of belonging free from the prejudices of her undocumented status.

In 2019, Angaea founded GaeaBound Studios to focus on her art practice as a fine art bookbinder and fiber artist. Angaea has been featured in a solo exhibition at the Wailoa Art Center, Hilo; group exhibition with scientists at the Alliance of Women in Media Arts and Technology in Santa Barabara, California; and many occasions at the Donkey Mill Art Center, Holualoa. In 2022, Angaea exhibited internationally for the first time in Germany. She virtually collaborated on a project from Hawaii with artists James Jack in Japan and Quitong Zhai in Germany, to participate in the Composting Knowledge Network that was exhibited in Documenta:Fifteen in Kassel, Germany. In tandem, she works at the Donkey Mill Art Center as the Fiber Apprentice developing Hawaii-based handmade paper and teaching workshops on bookbinding and papermaking. In mentorship with artist Gerald Lucena and funded by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Angaea is also a Youth Teaching Artist at the Donkey Mill Art Center, collaborating with classroom teachers in the public schools to provide art classes about the robust culture and abundance of Hawai`i’s ahupa`a.