Inspired by traditional Tongan art practices, Kulimoe'anga 'Stone' Maka has developed a unique form of abstract art.

After graduating from Whitecliffe College of Art & Design in 2001, Stone enrolled at the Manukau School of Visual Art, where he received his Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2005. Since then, Stone has received a number of accolades and attracted a number of private commissions. He won the To’utupu Tonga Trust Annual Excellence Award for Art in 2006, quickly followed by the Margaret Stoddart Prize in 2008. In the following year, he was awarded the Macmillan Brown Pacific Studies Artist Residency. Through his art, Stone maintains a

Inspired by these forms, Stone presented a solo exhibition at Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, which explored the overlap between traditional Tongan art and Western abstraction. The rarity of ngatu ‘uli in part comes of the laborious process of creating the tapa and pigments. Stone’s mother and sisters make the bark cloth while he makes his own pigments from clay, stones and the bark of mangroves. Stone’s work is also notable for his method of painting using traditional Tongan smoking techniques. His process involves suspending canvas from his studio ceiling and aiming his smoke can from beneath. Using masking tape, Stone sections out areas for smoking in order to create the intended shapes.  Different leaves, including those from cabbage trees, sugar canes and candlenut, are used to produce smoke that will achieve different colours. The results are earthy tones of red and brown and black. In many of the works, circles hover like halos over the large colour fields. His solo exhibition Faka'ahu-Contemporary Fumage, 2009, presented 13 works that had been painted with smoke. Stone continues to improve his methods of painting with smoke at his Christchurch studio.

Kulimoe’anga has exhibited work around New Zealand as well as in Hawai’i and Tonga. His groups and solo exhibitions include: Tonga ‘i Onopooni – Tonga Contemporary, Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, 2014; Ngatu Tu 'Uli - the past is now: Kulimoe'anga Stone Maka, Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, 2011; Pakiwhaitara – Stories to Tell, Ramp Gallery, Waikato, 2011; Au Mei Moana – Returning Tides: The Tonga Cultural Heritage Exhibition, Fa’onelua Convention Centre, Nuku’alofa, 2010; Tohinoa 'o' Manatu (Journal of My Memories), COCA Gallery, Christchurch, 2010; Maka Tu'u Taha - New Paintings by Kulimoe'anga Maka & Samiu Napa'a, Fresh Gallery Otara, Auckland, 2007 and Papata pe ka na'e Lalanga (It may be coarse in texture, but it was woven), Our City O-Tautahi, Christchurch, 2007.