British Museum Hawaii exhibition reviews: what the critics say
- maxwell museums
- Jan 19
- 5 min read
The Hawaii exhibition at the British Museum has opened to strong and enthusiastic reviews from critics.
Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans — which runs at the British Museum until 25 May 2026 — features over 150 objects which tell the fascinating story of the 19th century relationship between Hawaii and the United Kingdom. But this is not a dry history show — I can tell you that the exhibition is really dazzling.
I visited on the second day the exhibition was open to the public, in January 2026. My verdict is that it’s an engrossing dive into Hawaiian culture, and that curators have crafted a captivating narrative of royalty, tragedy and artistry.
And the UK’s art critics seem to agree. Keep reading for my full review and a round up of what the papers say.
What is the British Museum’s Hawaii exhibition and what’s on display?
The Pacific island nation of Hawaii became a unified kingdom in 1810. This exhibition traces the complex relationship between Hawaii and the UK in the following decades.
At its heart — and quite literally in the heart of the exhibition's gallery — the show focuses on the first royal Hawaiian visit to London. In 1824, King Liholiho and his Queen Kamamulu set sail on a five-month voyage to try to solidify an alliance with the British Crown. They made it to Britain, but they didn’t make it to their audience with King George IV. With no immunity to European diseases, they contracted measles and died within a week of each other.
Portraits of the royal couple are displayed here, alongside gifts they had brought on the trip. The rest of the show features brilliant examples of Hawaiian artistry, including sculptures of gods, ceremonial cloaks for chiefs, and contemporary art pieces demonstrating how craftsmanship continues on the islands today.
Art critics’ reviews of Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans
Britain’s critics have been very positive about the Hawaii exhibition.
The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones awarded the show five stars, summing up the exhibition as “a celebration of Hawaii and a defence of museums with global collections.”
He’s particularly impressed by the beauty of the objects on display. “The Hawaiian treasures retrieved from the British Museum’s stores are remarkable — they should have a permanent gallery to themselves” Jones writes.
And he praises the museum for looking after these treasures. “The almost miraculous preservation of delicate, fragile artworks made with feathers, teeth, wood and bark for almost 250 years is surely to the British Museum’s credit” Jones writes.
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“Thrilling” and “exciting” is the Telegraph’s verdict. Four out of five stars is what’s awarded in Evgenia Siokos’s review, with particular praise for the curation. “Alice Christophe, formerly of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, has curated the exhibition with a connoisseur’s appreciation for the territory’s indigenous craft and culture” Siokos writes.
Also hailing the objects and their “ferocious energy,” Siokos says that Christophe “has delved deep into the British Museum’s Pacific collections to conjure up rarely seen riches: only one piece in this show is normally on permanent view.”
Laura Freeman was also a big fan of the exhibition — her review in the Times is headlined “I was dazzled by this royal razzmatazz.” She was most impressed with “the showstopper” display of “a case of feathered cloaks, capelets, chokers, tokens, garlands and fans, all ravishingly presented and lit.”
But while she awards the exhibition four stars out of five, Freeman says she did feel “somewhat walloped by the history and the who’s who of Hawaiian royal genealogy.” She also hated the final work in the exhibition, a film made specially for the show of young Hawaiians reciting a poem. It’s “sub-sub-tourist board” she says, and is “beneath the dignity of this otherwise handsome and intelligent exhibition.”
Yet there's more praise from the Sunday Times. “The Hawai’i show at the British Museum is full of unexpected sights, big and small,” says Chief Art Critic Waldemar Januszczak, who applauds that “the tale is told with a mix of exciting artefacts and helpful texts.”
maxwell museums' review of Hawaii at the British Museum
I think the Hawaii exhibition is a triumph for the British Museum. It’s a fascinating story with intriguing characters from history that many visitors — myself included — will know little about.
The narrative feels perfectly paced. There’s no sagging middle, or filler.
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The design is particularly impressive and it's a genuinely evocative space. There are clever touches, especially in the section covering the deaths of the royal couple. Almost crypt-like, it features a display of two portraits of the King and Queen like a shrine. LED candles above nod to the candles that were placed around their bodies when they lay in state in their hotel rooms in London after tragedy struck.
I was also impressed with one of the final display cases which presented examples of the ongoing research into ancestral treasures in the British Museum’s collection. Highlighting the discoveries that are still being found to this day, it's clearly an attempt to dispel the myth that objects in collections sit in stores, unloved and getting dusty.
Overall, this could be a sleeper hit for the British Museum this year. While all eyes are perhaps on the upcoming Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, word of mouth could well mean Hawaii pulls in the crowds too.
Tickets to the Hawaii exhibition
If you want to see the British Museum’s Hawaii exhibition for yourself, it is open right now and runs until 25 May 2026.
Adult tickets are £16 for off-peak visits on weekdays, and £18 for peak periods at weekends. Under-16s and British Museum members get in free. Pre-booking is recommended if you want to ensure you don’t miss out.
And don't forget there's plenty more coming to the British Museum in 2026, including a huge exploration of Japanese samurai.
Now get the Hawaii exhibition book
Prep for your visit by grabbing a copy of the Hawaii exhibition's accompanying book. Edited by curator Alice Christophe
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