About Ruben Aira Jr.
"Every material I work
with carries its own story.
My job is to listen first
and figure out what it
wants to say."
Since settling on Oʻahu's North Shore in 1998, Ruben has devoted his practice to exploring transformation: the way material, memory, and emotion shift form when given care and intention. His sculptures and paintings bridge utility and beauty, industrial and organic, human and elemental.
Over the years, Rubenʼs hands have built roofs, sewn textiles, designed graphics, and hauled crab pots in the Alaskan cold. Every job taught patience, resourcefulness, and respect for process – lessons that now live in his art.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Ruben Aira Jr. has lived many lives before returning to his first one – as an artist. After immigrating to the United States as a child, he grew up surrounded by makers: family, friends, and neighbors who built their worlds by hand.
That early influence shaped his belief that creativity and craftsmanship are one and the same.
To him, art is not about control; itʼs a conversation between maker and material, guided by intuition and reverence for what already exists.
Ruben specializes in transforming old, unwanted, and discarded surfboards that have passed their surfing life into museum-worthy works of art. What was once destined for the landfill becomes an experience that captures Hawaiian land, culture, beauty, and spirit.
