Hawaiian Woman at Seashore

Yvonne Cheng (b. 1941) is a Hawaii-based artist who was born in Indonesia. Cheng began her art journey at a young age and attended schooling in Dutch international schools along with developing an early appreciation for Flemish masters such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh.

In the 1960s, Cheng relocated to Hawaii, where her art underwent a significant transformation. She immersed herself in native culture. She learned batik; textile techniques native to her homeland and began painting Hawaiian female figures. Cheng became well-known for her batiks, large-scale paintings and mosaic murals of Polynesian women and Hawaiian culture. Figures are adorned in kapa cloth, which included the native process of decorating textiles. In the mid 1980’ she gave up making batiks, due to the chemical process that became too difficult to continue. For this reason her batiks have become highly collectible and sought after. Her designs are considered unique and iconic of local Hawaiian culture.