Pilele Projects

Mylee Etuale, Ia Manatua

Exhibition Opening, October 3, 2026 3-5pm

Regular Gallery Hours Friday and Saturday 11am-4pm , through October 17

Pilele Projects is thrilled to present Ia Manatua, Mylee Etuale’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, opening this coming Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 3-5pm.

Ia Manatua is a Samoan phrase which can be translated as to remember, or to recall. It incorporates a Samoan concept for memory combining the term mana, meaning sacred power or spiritual energy, and tua, meaning back or support. The word ia calls manatua into presence, defines it as an act rather than an abstract concept, and positions it in a system of relationality. For Etuale, the practice of painting enacts the practice of memory. Her images are drawn from her own experience of returning to Samoa from her life in Southern California diaspora, welcomed in family, but also unfamiliar with so much of the language and lifeways that connect her to her ancestral home. Her paintings evince patient observation, joyful participation, and a sense of place, placement, and displacement which are at once vulnerable and assertive. The underlying images are made of photographic fragments, but the paintings emerge from a layered and resolutely manual process which unifies them into singularly resonant emotional chords. Her figures are intimate, but also turned away or partially hidden, sometimes cropped just beyond the edges of her canvases, so that what is given is more a feeling than a person. Similarly, her treatment of color and texture produce a dense generosity at the surface of her paintings which is also the result of a calculated withholding of the kinds of realism that offer up a picture in a single glance. Her paintings do not so much hold her memories as caress them into the present.

Email hafa@pileleprojects.org

Sid M. Duenas
Bad Moon, 2026
Laser ink toner, charcoal, paper
44 x 45.5 x 1.5 in. (each panel, diptych)

Photo: Elon Schoenholz Photography

Isa Gagarin
I Kinenne’ (The Catch), 2026
Site-specific wall painting
Dimensions variable

Isa Gagarin and Sid M. Duenas
Talåyan Langhet, 2026
digital video, audio
5:00 minutes

Photo: Elon Schoenholz Photography

Isa Gagarin
I Kinenne’ (The Catch), 2026
Site-specific wall painting
Dimensions variable

Photo: Elon Schoenholz Photography

Isa Gagarin
I Kinenne’ (The Catch), 2026
Site-specific wall painting
Dimensions variable

Isa Gagarin and Sid M. Duenas
Talåyan Langhet, 2026
digital video, audio
5:00 minutes

Photo: Elon Schoenholz Photography

Sid M. Duenas
T alåya Sequence, Fishing with Isa, 2026
Laser ink, toner, paper
44 x 45.5 x 1.5 in.

Photo: Elon Schoenholz Photography

Sid M. Duenas
T alåya Sequence, Fishing with Isa, 2026
Laser ink, toner, paper
44 x 45.5 x 1.5 in.

Photo: Elon Schoenholz Photogra

Talåyan Langhet

Sid M. Duenas and Isa Gagarin

Pilele Projects

May 16 - June 27, 2026

Gallery hours Fri/Sat 11-4pm

In this collaborative two-person exhibition, Sid M. Duenas and Isa Gagarin present Talåyan Langhet. Translated literally to sky net in English, Talåyan Langhet evokes an image of a CHamoru talayeru throwing a circular fishing net in shallow ocean waters. Duenas and Gagarin’s work employs the idea of a fishing net as a conceptual framework for their collaboration (which draws connections between their distinct visual and material approaches); it also functions as a metaphor for the fragmented nature of their respective CHamoru-language fluency. In his multi-media work, Duenas builds poetic textual elements including bilingual phrasing and compound words. Gagarin’s recent work plays with the ochosyllabic structure of kantan Chamorrita, composing original songs that accompany her paintings as a way to pursue CHamoru-language thought frameworks in her creative process.

Accompanying Duenas and Gagarin’s exhibition is an open-edition poster produced by Pilele Projects. The poster is a double sided print featuring 48 video stills from their collaborative video piece, also titled Talåyan Langhet. It also includes a folded insert with titles and a copy of Isa Gagarin’s kåntan Chamorrita, I Kinenne’ (The Catch) (2026), which shares its title with the site specific wall drawing that she produced for the exhibition.

25% of our sales will go to support Micronesia Climate Change Alliance

Purchase Talåyan Langhet Poster - $30

Email hafa@pileleprojects.org

Taotaomo'na (Ancestor) Portrait
October 14, 2023

Sid M. Duenas
New Nuebu Call Back
February 24 - April 30, 2024

Dan Taulapapa McMullin
Queer Theirstories of Polynesia
May 12 - July 28, 2024

UNFORGETTING
September 28 - Dec 7, 2024

Taotao’mona Portraits: Mali’e Inetnon
March 29 - May 10, 2025

JP / Jason Pereira
Tā Vā: a prism of time through space May 17 - June 14, 2025

Isa Gagarin
I Hagan Sirena (Daughter of Sirena)
June 28 - August 9, 2025

Sequoia Tangerine Kimmel
Melilt l ak ngiltii a kotek
November 15, 2025 - January 31, 2026

Sid M. Duenas and Isa Gagarin
Talåyan Langhet
May 16 - June 27, 2026

Pilele Projects3307A West Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90018

Gallery hours exhibition dependent.
See Current
Appointments can be made by email or direct message on our Instagram page.

hafa@pileleprojects.org

Founded by Mariquita “Micki” Davis and Edward Sterrett, Pilele Projects is an exhibition and workshop space dedicated to supporting projects by Pasifika artists in Southern California. We are working towards developing grant funded residencies for artists, cultural practitioners, curators, and scholars emerging from and focused on Pacific Island cultures and their diasporas.

Pilele Projects takes its name from the creative director’s Chamoru Grandfather who ran a Mom and Pop store and Laundro-mat in post-war Guam. The store was beloved in the village for being more than a convenience. It was a community center, a place for ceremonies, and a support for local artisans.