Restitution to Our Oceans–to our Pasifika I, II, III, and IV

Gazellah Bruder is an artist based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. She presents four paintings she created while an artist-in-residence (August to October 2025) in the Leipzig International Art program at the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei in Germany. In an artist statement, Bruder describes how her paintings are inspired by conversations surrounding complex subjects—colonization, de-colonization, identity, and restitution—and presents a critique of the devastating human impact on the earth’s oceans and ocean life. Her work calls for restitution to the oceans. Then, in an interview with art historian Stacy L. Kamehiro, Bruder discusses the four paintings and her artistic process in detail.