ARTIST IN RESIDENCE · ANDAZ RESORT AT WAILEA, MAUI
You've Been Surrounded by Welzie Art This Whole Time.
The lobby sculpture. The artwork on your floor. The gallery where your kids painted something they'll never throw away. The stones hidden around the property. It's all connected — and it all comes from one artist who has called this resort home since 2019.
Artist in residence since 2019 - Art Classes Daily - 8 Art Installations - Sculptures - 21 art pieces over 7 floors
Discover our products
The Artist in Residency
Everything is Intentional
When the Andaz reached out to Welzie about bringing more art and experience into the resort, he didn't hesitate. He saw immediately what his work could offer — not just to the walls of a beautiful property, but to the feeling of being there.
He became the Artist in Residence in 2019, and every year since, he has created one dedicated installation piece made specifically for the Andaz. Each one is new. Each one is made for this place.
But the residency is more than the named installations. His work is woven into the fabric of the property — in the lobby, the elevators, on every floor, along the walls, and tucked into the garden. Guests discover it a little at a time, often without realizing how much of what they've been admiring comes from the same artist, the same studio, the same world.
Some guests visit the gallery every day of their stay. Kids sign up for the art class three days in a row. Families make the gallery a dedicated stop on their holiday, and many come back year after year to see what's new.
That kind of connection doesn't happen by accident. It happens when the art actually belongs there.
Inaugural Art Piece 1 : Sculpture
Nalu Pua
Nalu Pua is Welzie's inaugural installation as Artist in Residence — and it set the tone for everything that followed.
Created from his signature medium of surfboard foam, fiberglass, and resin, Nalu Pua is a flower in full bloom This piece is a welcome and inivitation to guest as they arrive and it is intentional. A reminder of what is possible when you open yourself to a place like Maui.
We believe that Hawaii has something rare to offer — a mana, a spirit of aloha, a way of living that allows people and things to genuinely thrive. Only if you're willing to receive it and only if you're willing to share it in return. Nalu Pua is that idea made physical: a flower that has opened completely, holding nothing back, radiating color and life in every direction.
The sculpture is also a rendering of the color wheel, in perfect balance. Color as harmony. Aloha as wholeness. Bloom as the natural state of something that has found exactly where it belongs.
Installation 2: Hand Painted Mural
Maui Malolo - A Wall That Swims
Malolo is the Hawaiian word for flying fish and is a symbol of good uck! Welzie's wraparound hand-painted mural brings them to life at full scale. This is not a printed reproduction. Every line was painted directly on the wall by Welzie himself, making it one of the most fun photo drops.
The mural creates a sense of being whimsical and happy energy. This was inspired to greet staff and guests returning back to Maui after a long sabatical that we all experience id 2020-2021. It has fulfiled its person making folk genuinely smile as they pass by.
Installation 3: Sculpture
The Maui Map - Directions to Your Happy Place
On the fifth floor, just outside the gallery, you'll find Welzie's third personally curated installation for the Andaz — a large-scale 3D sculpture of the island of Maui, shaped and painted in his unmistakable hand.
Look closely and you'll find everything that makes this island impossible to forget. The Banyan Tree, Happy Sharks, Spam Musubi, Swimming with Honu, Sunrise at Haleakala, Shave Ice. The moments, the flavors, the creatures, and the places that make people smile just thinking about them — and keep pulling them back.
Installation 4 : Sculpture
Sumberged - A Tribute to the Humpback Whales
Every winter, humpback whales return to the waters off Maui — one of the most breathtaking wildlife migrations in the world. Submerged was created to honor them. This large-scale whale installation captures the quiet power and grace of these creatures in Welzie's signature style: bold lines, vivid color, unmistakably joyful.
It is one of the most photographed pieces on the property, and one of the most personal — a reminder that the art here is always rooted in the island, the ocean, and the living world just outside these walls.
Installation 5 : Large Original Paintings
Ka'ana Kitchen has Color
The art doesn't stop at the gallery walls. Step into Ka'ana Kitchen — one of the finest restaurants on property — and you'll find two of Welzie's most immersive pieces waiting for you.
Red Coral Fish is a 48 by 96 inch original alive with deep blues and bright, happy red fish moving in formation. It gives you the feeling of sitting inside a school of fish — surrounded, swept up, part of the current. The scale of it changes the room.
Jellyfish hangs vertically at 48 by 78 inches and pulls you somewhere deeper. Look into it long enough and you're no longer in a restaurant — you're hovering in open water, watching an entire bloom of jellyfish drift through the dark.
Together, these two pieces make Ka'ana Kitchen not just a place to eat, but a place to be. Welzie's sixth installation for the Andaz, and a reminder that on this property, great art and great food were always meant to share a table.
Installation 6: Day Dreaming
A Stroll Down Gallery Lane
Day Dreaming is a 48 x 78 inch hand-painted original, the fifth in the Andaz Collection. It is an endless wave. Close by you will find Maui Malolo Ohana 48 x 96 both built on surfboard foam, layered in fiberglass and resin, finished to that signature high-gloss shine.
These pieces are inspired by the love of the ocean, the beauty and endless fun that it shares. You can't help but stop and take in the whimsy of the Maui Malolo Ohana while drifting off into Day Dreaming.
Installation 7: Art Experience
Welzie x Andaz Scavenger Hunt
Hidden across the Andaz property are nine hand-carved stone markers — each one created by Welzie, each one concealing a unique image waiting to be discovered. Guests pick up a scavenger hunt booklet and a set of crayons at the gallery, then set off to explore the resort with fresh eyes.
When they find a stone, they place the booklet page over it and rub the crayon across — revealing the hidden image like a treasure map coming to life. Find all nine, return to the gallery, and collect a prize.
It turns a stay at the Andaz into an adventure. And it always, somehow, ends at the gallery.
Interacting with Art Daily
The Art Class:One of the Most Popular Experiences at the Resort.
The Welzie Art Gallery hosts art classes every day. This 75-minute experience is a fun way to create a memory you actually get to keep — using Welzie's original handmade backgrounds, his Posca pens, and his signature imagery to make a piece that is genuinely your own collaboration with the artist.
Art Classes are available for kids, ages 7 and older as well as adult classes. This is a great way to get out of the sun, have a day date, and just be creative.
No experience needed. Just show up ready to have fun.
Reservations made directly in the gallery.
Elevators open to Happy
Something Special on Every Floor
The installations are only part of the story. As you move through the Andaz Resort, every elevator opens to a piece of Welzie Art in the main building. Seven floors in the main building, each one different, each one chosen for that hallway, that light, that moment.
Some guests make a point of getting off on every floor just to see what's there. Consider it a little scavenger hunt of its own.
