About the artist
Rhett Parham, fine artist on Hawaiʻi Island
Clay from this earth. Fire that decides. No two pieces alike.
The fire and the island
Hawaiʻi Island is still being made. Kīlauea pushes lava into the sea. New land cools into black stone. My studio sits on a lava lot in Kaʻū, on the southern flank of Mauna Loa — looking out over the south side of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, at a landscape that is still becoming itself. I make art here, in that same spirit: with fire, by hand, one piece at a time.
I work with clay because the earth already knows what it wants to become. The imagery I build into my work comes from this place — the black pāhoehoe, the ʻōhiʻa lehua pushing through new rock, the slow alchemy of destruction becoming the most fertile soil on earth. This is what I want people to feel when they stand in front of one of my pieces: that contradiction. Lava is the sharpest, most hostile surface imaginable — and also the beginning of everything. A single fern finds a crack. Then comes the forest. Then comes the garden that feeds the world.
Beauty is always here, waiting for us to step inside it — in new growth and in what the fire leaves behind, in every state our world passes through.
Where this comes from
I didn't start in clay. I started in bronze — as an apprentice to Huberto Maestas in San Luis, Colorado, working in his foundry, learning what happens when fire meets material. That's where I understood that making things slowly, with your hands, with heat, is its own kind of knowledge.
I also know what it is to be broken and rebuilt. Cauda Equina Syndrome took me to a wheelchair. The injury brought exceptional pain and loss. I am standing now, by the grace of God and a long road back. I build things with my hands in a place where the ground itself is proof that destruction is never the end of the story.
I majored in sculpture and K–12 art education at Adams State University. I've been a certified art teacher since 1999. Now I work and teach where the volcano reminds you every day that creation is violent and patient and ongoing.
Before Kaʻū, I lived on Lānaʻi and on Maui. These islands are home, and the work is made for collectors on every one of them.
The work itself
I fire with gas. The kiln's atmosphere, the oxygen, the slow climb in temperature all leave their mark on the glaze. The gas kiln decides. No two pieces come out the same. That's the point. You can't fake what fire does.
Almost all of my glazes are mixed by hand here in the studio, from materials I source as locally as I can. The color on each piece starts with this place.
Every piece is an original — carved and finished by hand, signed RWP, and registered with a certificate of authenticity. No AI is used to design or create any of my artwork. I make these pieces to be looked at, lived with and kept.
Fine art for all
This is an equal-access gallery. High-end work should not be behind a velvet rope, so the collection runs from limited-edition earrings to one-of-one collector pieces on koa.
Rebecca Parham, curator
Rebecca Parham is the studio's curator. She selects the work for the gallery and each collection, and arranges live curator sessions, presentations and demos.
Ken Plain, sales manager
Ken Plain, a U.S. Veteran based in North Carolina, works with collectors on gallery purchases and commissions for homes. Hotels and large projects work directly with Rhett.
Stella, Bear, and Jack, the studio dogs, handle quality control.
Come curious
No velvet rope here. Aloha means everyone's welcome — serious collectors, first-time buyers, people who just fell for a single piece. Talk to a live curator anytime.
— Rhett Parham
Clay from this earth. Fire that decides. No two pieces alike.