Kaaterina and Tai Kerekere are Maori artists from Wellington, New Zealand. Tai Kerekere’s paintings look as though they’re carved through a variety of surfaces; to achieve this effect, he uses see-through imagery, and his pieces are high-tech and ancient at the same time. Kaaterina Kerekere calls her paintings "portals" that allow the viewer to step into a world of legend and storytelling.

Both artists work with acrylic gel and paint on large wood surfaces. He adds fine-lined designs on acrylic sheets and she uses color, relief work and sand to create intricate paintings of ancestral adornments and historic places.

Together, the husband and wife brought 21 pieces of mixed-media art to exhibit at Gallery ‘Iolani, as well as 26 family members to join in the celebration of their first two-person international exhibition. The show, "Nga Uri o Tangaroa — Descendants of Tangaroa," runs through Feb. 27.

When the Kerekeres discussed their art and research recently in Hawaii, the audience nodded in understanding. Tai Kerekere told of a trip to do research at the New Zealand land courts.

"They said, what’s your reference number? And I thought, that’s what we have become, bar coded." He says that in the time of his ancestors, people only had one name. Next, they needed a surname, "and now we can’t exist without a number!"

When his Maori carving jobs were completed, he started to paint.

"I wanted to tell the stories of our forebearer Paikea the whale, and the hammerhead shark, both from the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki, and how we are taking our identity back."

For her paintings, Kaaterina Kerekere did research, tracing artifacts held in museums from New York to Florence, Italy. Some were documented as part of the artifacts collected during the Pacific voyages of Capt. James Cook.

She says a common theory was that Maori colors were black, white and red. She describes the moment she walked into a museum in Florence and saw painted beams that were once Maori meetinghouse rafters.

They were "every color, turquoise, green, orange, wild and wonderful colors that made much better sense for welcoming people to a meeting place. It took my breath away," she recalled.

In paintings in the Gallery ‘Iolani show, she includes images from her tribal research that is part of what she calls a "digital repatriation system."

Though gathering the objects from museums around the world and taking them back home isn’t realistic, she says, making sure they are available digitally is something that can be accomplished. She wants this accessibility for all Maori children so that they can know their heritage.

Tai Kerekere says he met his wife 15 years ago in art school. "I was carving Maori meeting houses and Kaaterina was doing graphic design."

After graduating, they married and began both their painting careers and their family. The couple’s children are following the path of art. The oldest, 18, is working on digital photos, while the 3-year-old paints "mostly on the walls," says Kaaterina. Their 8-year old daughter makes bead necklaces that she sells to raise money for their school’s breakfast fund. So far, she’s raised $130.

The Kerekeres’ work was included in a 2011 exhibit of 20 Maori artists at Gallery ‘Iolani. Gallery director Toni Martin was impressed by their work and stayed in touch.

The show’s opening on Jan. 31 was a cultural exchange of chant in two languages, presented by the college’s Hawaiian studies faculty and students, and answered by the Maori delegation.

Martin says that within minutes of opening, two works were purchased, one by a local collector and the other by a collector from Germany.

The Kerekeres agree that they were "blessed to make such a friend" as Martin. The result of their friendship created "a most important milestone for our art careers."