“There’s something really special about the darkroom,” said Kapiʻolani Community College English literature major Geneva Mellison. “No phones, no distractions. It creates this intimate environment where students can connect, create and encourage each other.”

Mellison’s photography was featured in the Kapiʻolani CC Student Show 2026. The exhibition, held from April 29 to May 8 at the , showcased works from introductory and intermediate studio art and new media art students. It emphasized students’ commitment to material processes and contemporary artistic exploration across mediums such as ceramics, drawing, painting, photography and sculpture.

Her exhibition piece, My Perfect Mask, 2025, was a series of gelatin silver prints created in a photography course. It explored “masking,” or the suppression of one’s true personality to conform to social expectations. Her passion for the medium started young.

“Photography is the love of my life,” Mellison said. “I was gifted a camera when I was seven, and I carry one around with me wherever I go. These projects have been on my mind constantly, and I think the flow of creativity happened in my life, too. I just walk around and think, ‘Oh, that would make a great picture.’”

Exhibition experience

Koa Gallery Director Brandon Ng said the show provided vital experience, inviting students to get a taste for what it is like to exhibit their work in a gallery.

Ng said, “The result was a showcase of work that emphasized the students’ commitment to learning their craft, while catalyzing art as a vital tool for them to engage with the world.”

He hopes to continue expanding opportunities for artists through the Koa Gallery, while creating exhibitions that invite deeper community engagement and creative exploration across disciplines.

“We want the gallery to be a place that inspires students and visitors to view art as a lifelong companion,” Ng said. “This exhibition served as a meaningful touchstone for art and education and one that will build on Koa Gallery’s goal of being a critical space for art that enriches and complicates the essential conversations central to Hawaiʻi and its people.”

Student art shone in the spotlight in Crafting Voices, an exhibition at Kapiʻolani Community College’s showcasing the creative talents of students across fine arts courses. The show featured a diverse array of work—drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, and two- and three-dimensional design.

“My self-portrait is inspired by natural distortion in the real world—from feelings that distort our perception or real objects, like glass that distorts our features,” said Sophia Villalobos, whose drawing explored emotion and perception.

Ceramics student Arthur Kastler shared Orpheus Planter, a piece rich with personal and artistic influences.

“This piece is inspired by works of Clara Holt, a ceramics artist in Italy, who makes a lot of classically inspired pieces with the sgraffito technique,” he said. “Though just beginning in ceramics, I have drawn all my life, which probably attracted me to sgraffito. The planter is also influenced by George Herriman, a great twentieth-century cartoonist and creator of Krazy Kat, a hero of mine.”

The exhibition, which was held from April 24 until May 8, offered many students their first opportunity to publicly share their work.

‘Valuable lifelong skills’

“Sharing student work in a public gallery gives students real-world experience,” said Kloe Kang, art instructor at Kapiʻolani CC. “It builds their confidence, allows them to communicate their ideas to a broader audience, and helps them see themselves as active contributors to the larger cultural and creative dialogue.”

Psychology and public health student Ava McIntyre pushed creative boundaries with a still life painting from an introductory oil painting course.

“It was intimidating at first, but I learned so much. I wanted to show the beauty in everyday objects,” she said. “I hope it encourages others to take artistic risks.”

Carl Jennings, a professor of arts and humanities, emphasized the exhibition’s broader value.

“These works represent first steps. Though most of our students are not art majors, we introduce all of them to the creative process,” Jennings said. “These are valuable lifelong skills that everyone can benefit from.”

—By Lisa Yamamoto