pacific arts journal

paa Journal

Pacific Arts is the journal of the Pacific Arts Association, an international organization devoted to the study of the arts of Oceania (Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific Islands). The journal was established in 1990 and is currently issued as an annual volume in a new series that began in 2006. In 2020, the journal moved to eScholarship, the open access scholarly publishing program of the University of California/California Digital Library. Earlier volumes of the PAA Journal are available on JSTor.
Contribute to PAA Journal
Pacific Arts welcomes papers on the arts of Oceania and its diasporas focusing on visual arts, material cultures, and heritage arts. The scope is temporally broad, highlighting both historical and current topics while engaging with a wide range of creative mediums, forms, and subject matter. Pacific Arts aims to prioritize Indigenous voices, Pacific Arts is dedicated to providing an inclusive space for the expression of diverse perspectives and encourages interdisciplinary approaches to examining the political, social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, and environmental stakes in the production and study of Indigenous visual and material cultures in Oceania, past and present. Pacific Arts accepts submissions for scholarly articles, research notes (short communications related to academic scholarship or creative practice), discussion forums, and reviews of books, exhibitions, and media. The journal occasionally includes special features focused on specific artists and exhibitions; we invite proposals and submissions for these as well. For more information, please see our Submission Guidelines.
Call for Papers

We have an ongoing open call for submissions on the arts of Oceania and its diasporas focusing on visual arts, material cultures, and heritage arts. The scope is temporally broad, highlighting both historical and current topics while engaging with a wide range of creative mediums, forms, and subject matter. Pacific Arts encourages interdisciplinary approaches to examining the political, social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, and environmental stakes in the production and study of Indigenous visual and material cultures in Oceania, past and present. Please send full-length submissions and an abstract to pacificarts@ucsc.edu (see Submission Guidelines for more info).

Pacific Arts is also accepting reviews of books, media, and exhibitions that relate to visual and material cultures of Oceania. Authors, artists, museums, and publishers interested in having their work reviewed and anyone interested in writing a review should contact pacificarts@ucsc.edu.

We are grateful for your support and hope you enjoy reading Pacific Arts.

Sincerely,
Stacy L. Kamehiro and Maggie Wander, Executive Editors
Zella Vacaron, Editorial Assistant

Pacific Arts Volume 22, Issue 2 out now!

Contact Information

Stacy L. Kamehiro
Email

Maggie Wander
Email

Joslyn Chu
Email

Journals

Pacific Arts NS 23, 2023 No. 1

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Vol 23-1 (2023): We are pleased to announce that Pacific Arts, vol. 23, no. 1 has been released as an open access, peer reviewed, online journal published through the University of California’s eScholarship platform. This issue includes a special section focused on some of the research presented at the Pacific Arts Association–Europe’s annual symposium, “Gendered Objects in Oceania.”

Contributors to the special section and to the articles, research notes, and creative work featured in the issue include: Wonu Veys, Anna-Karina Hermkens, Carl Deussen, Bernida Webb-Binder, A. Mārata Tamaira, Natalie Robertson, Max Quanchi, Wagner De Souza Tavares and Rani Uli Silitonga, Cheryl Nohealani Olivieri, Karen Stevenson, Healoha Johnston, Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, Mary Gagler, and Aʻanoaliʻi Rowena Fuluifaga.

You can view or download the issue here

Pacific Arts NS 23, 2023-24 No. 2

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Vol 23-2 (2023-24): This special issue includes a special section focused on some of the research presented at the Pacific Arts Association–Europe’s annual symposium, “Gendered Objects in Oceania, Part 2.” Contributors to the special section and to the articles and creative work featured in the issue include: Wonu Veys, Maria Wronska-Friend, Nicolas Moret, Caroline van Santen, Tarisi Vunidilo, Susan Cochrane, Linda Vaʻaelua, and Théo Milin. You can view or download the issue here.

Pacific Arts NS 22, 2022 NO. 2

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Image credit: Judy Watson, a picnic with the natives–the gulf(detail), 2015. Pigment and acrylic on canvas, 204 x 180 cm. Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photograph by Carl Warner. Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane
We are pleased to announce that Pacific Arts, vol. 22, no. 2 (December 2022) has been released as an open access, peer reviewed, online journal published through the University of California’s eScholarship platform. This special issue focuses on the theme “Grounded in Place: Dialogues between First Nation Artists from Australia, Taiwan, and Aotearoa“, guest edited by Sophie McIntyre, Fang Chun-wei, and Zara Stanhope.

The collection of essays and creative work featured were presented at a three-day symposium held in October 2021 that explored several themes: History and Sovereignty, Land and Community, Site and Materials, and Place and Space.

Contributors include: Patrick Flores, Vernon Ah Kee, Chang En-Man, Kaihaukai Art Collective, Judy Watson, Akac Orat, Areta Wilkinson on behalf of Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts, Mandy Quadrio, Yuma Taru, Leah King-Smith, Anchi Lin (Ciwas Tahos), Ngāhuia Harrison, and Megan Tamati-Quennell.

You can view or download the issue here

Pacific Arts NS 22, 2022 NO. 1

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This special issue focuses on the theme “Pacific Island Worlds: Oceanic Dis/Positions,” which explores past and present visual art forms and practices related to place-making and identity formations in Oceania. Colonial interactions have produced a range of mobilities, yielding fraught processes of displacement, establishing new homes, and forming social, cultural, and political positions in the face of various dis-positionings. Articles and creative work lend insight into understanding human experiences in Oceania that generate future imaginings and contribute not only to a “mode of survival,” but to “an art of living” across the region.

Contributors include: Christina Ayson Plank, Joe Balaz, Jesi Luhan Bennett, Jewel Block, Kaili Chun, James Clifford, Kelly Joseph, Stacy L. Kamehiro, Yuki Kihara, Claudia Ledderucci, Diana Looser, Katharine Losi Atafu-Mayo, Margo Machida, Kelema Moses, Carl F. K. Pao, Giles Peterson, Meleia Simon-Reynolds, Karen Stevenson, Mārata Tamaira, Katerina Teaiwa, Axelle Toussaint, and Michelle Williams.

You can view or download the articles here

Pacific Arts NS 21, 2021 No. 1

2021-21-1

Announcing our latest PAA Journal focusing on Arts Education in Oceania. This issue of Pacific Arts, which includes five contributions to a discussion roundtable, three articles, and one research note, is guest-edited by Anne E. Guernsey Allen. You can view or download the articles here.

Pacific Arts NS 20, 2020-21 No. 1

Pacific Arts, vol. 20, no. 1 (2020-2021) has been released as an open access online journal published through the University of California’s eScholarship platform. This thematic issue focuses on “Art and Environment in Oceania.” You can view or download the articles here.

Pacific Arts NS 18-19, 2018-2019

2018-19

Pacific Arts NS 17, 2017, No. 1

Pacific Arts NS 16, 2017, No. 2

Pacific Arts NS 16, 2016, No. 1

Pacific Arts NS 14, 2015, Nos. 1-2

Is an issue covering topics about Pacific Intersections and Cross Currents: Uncharted Histories and Future Trends with articles by Carol Mayer, Karen Stevenson, Susan Cochrane, Giles Peterson and Billie Lythberg, Kolokesa Uafa Mahina-tuai, Joyce Hammond, Adrienne Kaeppler,  Karen Duffek, Chantal Knowles, Henry Skerritt, Evadne Kelly, and Candace Galla.

Pacific Arts NS 13, 2014, No. 2

With articles by Harry Beran, Pauline van der Zee, Max Quanchi, and Susan Cochrane

Pacific Arts NS 13, 2013, No. 1

With articles on politics and art on Manam Island, Papua New Guinea by Nancy C. Lutkehaus; Hawaiian hair rituals circa 1800 by Teri Sowell; re-presentations and translations of personal ornaments as social markers in the Western and Central Provinces, Solomon Islands by Deborah Waite. Reviews by Hilary Scothorn, Michael Mel, Anne Allen, and Eric Silverman.

Pacific Arts NS 12, 2012, No. 1

The second journal edited by Dr. Barry Craig and Dr. Ross Bowden focusing on the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea.  With articles by  Barry Craig, Phillip Guddemi, and Michaela Appel and book reviews of The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia and Easter Island and its Mysteries by Anne Guernsey Allen and Eric Kjellgren.

Pacific Arts NS 11, 2011, No. 1

Feature articles on the collections of James Edge-Partington and William Ockleford Oldman, tertiary art education in PNG and the promotion of contemporary PNG art,  and the iconography of Trobriand war shields.  Contributors include: Roger Neich (with special introduction by Christian Kaufmann), Pamela Rosi, and Harry Beran.

Pacific Arts NS 11, 2011, No. 2

Guest edited by Dr. Barry Craig and Dr. Ross Bowden.  With feature articles on Kwoma Nokwi figures, Serembule/Vovoso from Western Province, Solomon Islands, the architecture of South Nias, Indonesia, and book reviews for Creative Spirits: Bark Painting in the Washkuk Hills of North New Guinea by Ross Bowden and Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes. The Masterpieces Exhibition, Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery by Barry Craig, Mark Busse and Soroi Marepo Eoe. Contributors include: Ross Bowden, Jerome Feldman, Phillip Guddemi, Jim Specht, and Deborah Waite. 

Pacific Arts, NS 9 2010 NO. 1

With feature articles focusing on Sepik painting, Maori art, and a Pacific artist’s perspective. Contributors include: Christian Kaufmann, Patricia Owen, Max Quanchi, and Jean-Louis Boglio.

Pacific Arts, NS 8 2009

With feature articles focusing on paintings, new galleries, collectors, and artists from the Pacific. Contributors include: Christian Kaufmann, Barry Craig, Lucie Carreau, and Tressa Berman.

Pacific Arts, NS 7 2008

With feature articles focusing on masks of the Pacific. Contributors include: Antje Denner, Susan Cochrane, and Pauline van der Zee.

Pacific Arts, NS 6 2007

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With feature articles focusing on Pacific architecture and guest-edited by Anne E. Guernsey Allen. Contributors include: Anne Allen, Deirdre Brown and Naomi McPherson.

Pacific Arts, NS 3-5 2007

A special issue in honor of Jehanne Teilhet-Fisk. Contributors include guest editors, Ping-Ann Addo, Heather Young Leslie, and Phyllis Herda.

Pacific Arts, NS 2 2006

Included four feature articles focusing on Melanesia. Contributors include: Antje Kelm, Antje Denner, Pauline van der Zee and Ross Bowden. Also included were book/catalog reviews, exhibition reviews, a review of the 9th Festival of Pacific Arts and a video review.

Pacific Arts, NS 25 2002

Pacific Arts, NS 1

The first journal in the new series began with a 2006 publication date. It marked the beginning of a partnership with Jordan Wright and Volo Publishing, New York. Contributors included Harry Beran, Graeme Were, Jenny Newell, Jean Michel Massing, and Patricia Wallace.