Original works are hand-carved, painted, and finished by Ruben Aira Jr. in his Oʻahu studio. Each piece is one of a kind — no two are alike.
Every original artwork is crafted by hand with care, patience, and presence. Some pieces take months to complete. Inspired by the spirit of Hawaiʻi, Ruben’s work carries the ocean into the process itself — the sound of waves in every strike of the chisel, every brush stroke, and every final finishing touch.
A Place Within
$9,600.00
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A Place Within
A Place Within reaches back to Ruben's childhood in a Catholic Cuban household, where images and statues of female saints were a constant presence. Their stillness, grace, and quiet authority became part of his earliest visual memory — familiar forms that remained somewhere within him long after childhood.
In this painting, that memory returns not as a portrait of any particular saint, but as a more personal and dreamlike presence. A feminine figure appears suspended within layers of blue and green, surrounded by soft veils of light and form. She seems both protected and revealed, as if emerging from an interior sanctuary.
The work reflects a recurring idea in Ruben's practice: transformation does not always happen outwardly. Sometimes it is inward — a return to memory, belief, and the images we carry quietly through our lives.
A Place Within is less about religion itself than about the lasting power of what surrounds us when we are young, and the unexpected ways those early impressions can resurface years later through art.
2024 · Oil on canvas · 36 × 36 in.
$9,600.00
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