–Elizabeth Hutchinson

Sonya Kelliher-Combs is not from the village of Kingigan.  The Anchorage-based artist has Seward Peninsula Inupiaq, Athabascan, German and Irish heritage.  Her work demonstrates a deep engagement with Inupiaq visual traditions including the materials, processes and forms stemming from the graphic art of bow drills and the tailoring and embellishment of clothing, but her work is also made within the context of a global contemporary art world in which artists also draw on deeply personal sources for their imagery.  As has been stated elsewhere on this website, it is important to acknowledge the the Inupiat are not a monolithic homogenous culture, yet it is meaningful to draw comparisons across their communities because of broadly shared cultural traditions and a long history of exchange within their territories.  Kelliher-Combs might be seen as negotiating many aesthetic networks in her art.

Kelliher-Combs works in mixed media and installation.  She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and obtained her MFA from Arizona State University in 1992.  She has been shown in solo and group exhibitions around the United States and abroad including Hide at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.  Kelliher-Combs is a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Eiteljorg Fellowship.  According to her website, “It is her goal and mission to bring awareness, to educate, and to perpetuate the arts and traditions of the many diverse cultures of Alaska.”

For more information, please visit the following:

http://www.sonyakellihercombs.com/

https://www.eiteljorg.org/interact/podcasts/2012/06/07/fellowship-artist-profile-sonya-kelliher-combs-(inupiaq-athabascan)

http://www.iaia.edu/museum/vision-project/artists/sonya-kelliher-combs/