Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Native Art Center is proud to present Monoprints and fashion STATEMENT in honor of National American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month History


MONOPRINTS from University of Alaska Fairbanks Workshop is an exhibition in collaboration and partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Native Arts Center and Printmaking Program, the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, artist and professor Melanie Yazzie from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Alaska Native Artists and students, Kathleen Carlo, Erin Gingrich, Eric Hamar, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Erica Lord, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, Junko Yanagda, Marjorie Tabone, and Denis Keogh. Initially Kelliher-Combs intended to work solo with guest artist, Melanie Yazzie but realized what a wonderful opportunity it would be to share her with young Alaska Native Arts Students and other Alaska Native Artists at her Alma mater UAF. The intense 2-day workshop yielded many prints but more important was the energy, creativity, learning, sharing, and new made friendships. These prints are a very small sampling of what was created.

This exhibition and printmaking workshop held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, April 2011, were made possible through a generous grant from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.

For More Information on either of these shows please visit
http://www.burkemuseum.org/exhibits/browse/fashion_statement

Friday, October 14, 2011

fashion STATEMENT


The Native Art Center is proud to present fashion STATEMENT at the UAF gallery in Honor of National Native American Month, November 2011. 

EXHIBITION:
fashion STATEMENT: Native Artists Against Pebble Mine

(Seattle) – Seattle artist and fisherwoman Anna Hoover is arranging a group show in opposition of the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay. The exhibition, comprised of artwork created by internationally celebrated Native artists reproduced on t-shirts and limited edition prints, will be exhibited and made available online for purchase to raise awareness for this movement. In August the exhibit will premiere at the International Gallery in Anchorage, AK, before touring to a series of venues around the US, Canada and New Zealand.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has stated, “If the Pebble Mine is allowed to go forward, it will inflict irreversible damage on Bristol Bay -- including the permanent destruction of sixty miles of salmon habitat.” Hoover’s grassroots efforts will join a host of celebrity voices, including Robert Redford and Tiffany and Co., to spread the message about the proposed Pebble Mine and its disastrous effects on the environment and region’s subsistence way of life. The recent threat of the proposed Pebble Mine would cause not only an environmental disaster but also erase an entire fishing industry that relies on the continued return of the salmon. Hoover discussed her personal connection to the cause:

I have spent my entire life returning summer after summer to Bristol Bay along with the millions of salmon that for millennia spawn in this area. It is not just a resource to me, but an important part of my existence and I recognize the importance of the health of the Bay in order for the continued sustainability of the entire region’s ecosystem. Working with close friends and internationally respected Native artists, the goal of this exhibition is to garner support for the protection of Bristol Bay and all who call this place home.

Currently slated to feature fifteen Native artists from around the world, fashion STATEMENT asks each artist to create a unique anti-Pebble design to be printed on t-shirts and limited edition prints.The artwork will both be displayed and sold at the gallery and via a soon-to-be launched website.

The show features designs by esteemed Native artists such as Joe David, James Luna and Larry McNeil, all of whom have asserted the centuries long relationships that Native peoples have created with their environments, through Native art activism. Featured artists include Marcus Amerman (Choctaw), Sonny Assu (Kwakwaka’wakw), Rick Bartow (Wiyot), Phillip Charette (Yup’ik), Joe David (Nuu-chah-nulth), Nicholas Galanin (Aleut, Tlingit), Anna Hoover (Aleut), John Hoover (Aleut), Brad Kahlhamer (Lakota), Richard Kereopa (Te Arawa, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Tainui, Nga Puhi), James Luna (LuiseƱo), Larry McNeil (Tlingit, Nisga’a), Da-ka-xeen Mehner (Tlingit), Tanis S’eiltin (Tlingit).

Anna Hoover has traveled extensively attending international gatherings of indigenous artists in New Zealand, Hawai’i, and Far Eastern Russia/Siberia. Her work has been presented at a number of galleries around the world, including a solo exhibition in Komsomolsk, Russia, and group shows at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Princeton University (US, 2009), Proyecto ACE (Argentina, 2009), and the Bishop Museum, Hawai’i (US, 2007). She received a Fellowship to work with the gallery Alaska House New York and has received several commissions from the Burke Museum (Seattle, WA) one of which is currently on national tour.

This spring she is completing Master’s Degrees at the University of Washington in Documentary Filmmaking and Native American Art History. Anna Hoover comes from a long lineage of commercial salmon fishers, and proudly carries on the family tradition. She has an intimate connection with this land and these waters resulting from time spent working and playing in Bristol Bay. She is hopeful this exhibition dedicated to saving Bristol Bay and stopping the Pebble Mine will reach audiences far and wide.

ABOUT THE PEBBLE MINE:

fashion STATEMENT will draw attention to the attempt by foreign mining investors Anglo American and Northern Dynasty to place North America’s largest open pit mine at the headwaters of the last remaining wild sockeye salmon streams. Mine’s of this type do not immediately effect the surrounding environment, it may take up to 80 years before the resulting disaster is evident. Open pit mines across the globe, in South Africa, Papua New Guinea and Butte, Montana, show us the risks outweigh the benefits.

A local group of eight Bristol Bay village corporations calling themselves Nunamta Aulukestai, or Caretakers of the Land stated:

Native people have been subsisting off of these fish for thousands of years. To put this resource at risk for an unsustainable resource such as gold is not only foolish but it endangers the livelihoods of the residents, animals and plants that live here.

INTERNATIONAL OPENING DATES

Summer 2011-Spring 2012

Anchorage • Fairbanks • Port Townsend • Portland • Astoria • Vancouver BC • New York City • Auckland • Washington DC • Seattle

http://www.nativeartistsagainstpebblemine.com/ 

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Contemporary Alaska Native Artist

Someone just asked if I new of any Contemporary Alaska Native Artists. This was my quick list off the top of my head.

Alaska Native Artists
John Hoover
Steven Jackson (AKA Stron Softi)
Jim Schoppert
Preston Singltary
Nicholas Galanin (AKA) Silver Jackson
Larry McNeil
Donnie Varnell
Tanis S'eiltin
Alvin Amason
Lena Amason
Jerry Laktonen
Perry Eaton
Denise  And  Samuel Wallace
Larry Beck
Ayap'run Jack Abraham
Phillip John Charette
Susie Silook
Peter Seeganna
Ken Lisbourn
Rick Seeganna
Larry Ulaaq Ahvakana
Melvin Olanna
Joseph Senungetuk
Sylvester Ayek
Ronald Senungetuk
Othneil Oomittuk
Sonya Kelliher-Combs
Susie Qimmiqsaq Bevins
Kathleen Carlo
James Grant
Ron Manook
Dimi Macheras
Erica Lord
Would love to here of others that anyone can think of.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

ALASKA’S LIVING CULTURAL TREASURES: A GIFT FOR OUR NEXT GENERATION Recognition Ceremony & Reception

The Alaska State Council on the Arts cordially invites you to join us in recognizing Living Cultural Treasures from the Doyon region for their traditional cultural leadership, time honored artistry and craftsmanship, and mastery of Athabascan language.

HONORED ELDERS
Alice Ambrose, Catherine Attla, Poldine Carlo, Edna Deacon, Daisy Demientieff, Lina Demoski, Bergman
Esmailka, Sr., Tekla Esmailka, Simon Francis, Ada Gallen, Angela Harper, Moses Henzie, Sidney Huntington,
Eliza Jones, Florence Keyse, Howard Luke, Micah Malcolm, Agnes Manook Ostlund, Pauline Peter, Helen
Peters, Elsie Pitka, Maggie Roberts, Goodwin Semaken, Sr. and Hannah Solomon.

TEACHERS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
Clifford Adams, George Albert, Dixie Alexander, Irene Solomon Arnold, Kathleen Carlo, Kathleen Ketzler
Demientieff, Riba DeWilde, Lillian DeWilde, Curtis Erhart, Trimble Gilbert, Ann Goessel, Denise Hardesty,
Emma Glazier Hildebrand, Marvin Kokrine, Esther Ambrose McCarty, Susan Paskvan, Faith Peters, Delores
Sloan, Bill Stevens, and Madeline Williams.

For more information and to RSVP contact Saunders McNeill at the Alaska State Council on the Arts
1-888-278-7424 or 1-907-269-6603
This program is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
Folk and Traditional Arts Infrastructure Grant
ALASKA’S LIVING CULTURAL TREASURES:
A GIFT FOR OUR NEXT GENERATION
Recognition Ceremony & Reception
Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center
Fairbanks, Alaska
March 18, 2011
6 - 8 pm