Sonya Kelliher Combs
(Iñupiaq/Athabascan), Anchorage
Large Pink Walrus Family Portraits, with Red,
2024
Acrylic polymer, caribou hair, porcupine quill, paper, cellulose, nylon thread. Photo credit: Laurence Poirier
Projection description
Signifying generations, layered within this paint skin are walrus tusk forms. Similar to a last name, certain patterns adorning Alaska Native garments are linked to families and communities. For generations Iñupiaq families have and still utilize this pattern on the front of their parkas and these cocoon shaped patterns were meant to empower the wearer. Within Large Pink Walrus Family Portraits, with Red this shape is a metaphor for a secret. A secret is, by definition, something hidden, unspoken, repressed, and kept unknown.
About the artist
Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq/Athabascan) is a mixed-media visual artist whose family hails from the North Slope and Interior of Alaska. Her work focuses on the changing North and our relationship to nature and each other. Through visual art, community engagement, curation and advocacy, Kelliher-Combs works to create opportunities to feature Indigenous voices and contemporary artwork that inform and encourage social action. Traditional women's work taught her to appreciate the intimacy of intergenerational knowledge and material histories. These experiences and skills allow Kelliher-Combs to examine connections between Western and Indigenous cultures. Recent exhibitions include Arctic/Amazon, Powerplant Gallery, Toronto, ON; Agency, Feminist Art and Power, Museum of Sonoma County, Sonoma, CA; Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Multi-venue traveling exhibition originating at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN. Kelliher-Combs is a United States Artist Fellow, Native Arts and Cultures Fellow, Eiteljorg Fellow, Joan Mitchell Fellow, and Rasmuson Fellow. Kelliher-Combs lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska.
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