Vaimaila Urale is a Samoan-born interdisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Born in Fagamalo, Savai‘i, Samoa, her practice explores the intersections of digital language, Indigenous knowledge and contemporary visual culture. Working across digital media, installation, sculpture, textiles and participatory projects, Urale draws on Samoan visual languages while experimenting with contemporary technologies, materials and modes of making.

Central to Urale’s practice is her distinctive use of ASCII — the keyboard characters < > / \ — to create patterns and compositions that reference forms of mark-making found in Samoan tatau and siapo. By working with some of the simplest symbols of digital communication, she creates a visual language that moves between ancestral and contemporary systems of making and transmitting knowledge. Her work is also grounded in personal narratives, place, connection and lived experience.

Urale has presented work extensively in Aotearoa and internationally. Her work has been exhibited at Para Site, Hong Kong; Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway; Casablanca Biennale, Morocco; 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; Cement Fondu, Sydney; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre, New Plymouth; The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt; and Māngere Arts Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau. Her practice has also taken her into collaborative, public and community contexts, extending beyond conventional gallery spaces.

Alongside her individual practice, Urale is a co-founder of Moana Fresh, 2019-2026, a Pasifika artist-led platform established in Tāmaki Makaurau that supported and presented the work of Pacific and Māori artists, makers and writers. She is also a co-founder and member of D.A.N.C.E. Art Club, an artist collective alongside artists, Tuafale Tanoa’i & Ahilapalapa Rands.