How Cool! Explore HoMA’s New Breeze Block Exhibition Let Trade Winds Flow

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Newly opened on Nov. 7, the Honolulu Museum of Art’s latest exhibition, Let Trade Winds Flow, celebrates one of the Islands’ most ubiquitous building materials—the humble breeze block. Inspired by local nonprofit Docomomo US/Hawai‘i Chapter’s conservation efforts and its 2023 publication, Screen Blocks in Hawai‘i: Letting Trade Winds Flows, the exhibit considers the concrete tile’s origins, its role in local architecture and the imaginative configurations it appears in throughout the state.

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Curator Tory Laitila tapped six Hawai‘i photographers—Amy Berhle, James Charisma, David Franzen, Michelle Mishina, James Nakamura (HONOLULU Magazine’s creative director) and Kahale Naehu-Ramos—for compelling images of breeze block snapped on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Kaua‘i and Moloka‘i. From a 107-year-old mom-and-pop diner in Lihue and a former 1960s Edward Bauer-designed bank in Kapahulu to a Hilo home’s moss-covered exterior wall, there’s a wonderful variety of photography to take in. The exhibit also has actual blocks in play as room dividers and built into its walls.

Photos: Paul Strouse, Courtesy Roberta Oaks

In the museum gift shop, you can snap up Roberta Oaks’ signature Breeze Block aloha shirt in three new limited-edition colorways (ivy, copen and peach), created in collaboration with HoMA in honor of the exhibit. There’s also an adorable graphic print breeze block keiki tee.

On view through March 8. General admission $25, $15 for kama‘āina, free for members and keiki age 18 and under, Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., Mō‘ili‘ili, honolulumuseum.org, @honolulumuseum

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Brie Thalmann is the home and style editor of HONOLULU Magazine.