The Art of…

The Alaska Art Experience

Celebrating Alaska Art & Virginia Hospitality - 2010

New Works by Native Alaskan Artists - Ron Senungetuk (Come Again) & Barry "Schgunaa" Smith (Spirit World)

We would like to welcome you to The Alaska Art Experience. All of the members of the organizing committee admire art of different styles and enjoy getting the chance to interact with artists to deepen our appreciation & understanding of their creations. The goal of The Alaska Art Experience is to facilitate the exchange of artistic thoughts and feelings between two great Native Alaskan Artists and you, our guests. We are pleased to share this exhibit with you and hope that it is just the beginning of your journey with arctic art.

Our curators, Amrie G. and Peter E. Lipsky, have enjoyed traveling to Alaska over the past five summers and been fortunate to have been exposed to Native Alaskan Art in the natural environment of gorgeous & wild Alaska. Fittingly, the name of this state is derived from a native word meaning “the object towards which the action of the sea is directed”. The artists featured in this exhibit are from very different regions of Alaska, both near the sea, but each with its own unique cultures and environments. The sea affects the indigenous people they are a part of but affects the artists as individuals.

Barry “Schgunaa” Smith is an Alaskan Tlingit artist from Juneau in southeast Alaska along the Gastineau Channel of the Inside Passage. Long before Joe Juneau mined gold in this region, the Tlingit people called Juneau Dzántik'i Héeni, “the river where founders gather". The Tlingit tradition tells of ancient times when their ancestors were animals and each matrilineal group was made up of Ravens or Eagles. Barry is from the Eagle-Wolf Clan. He carves natural material, such as woolly mammoth ivory, walrus ivory and orca teeth using traditional Tlingit/Haida guidelines to create masterworks of expression that are rooted in the traditions of northwest native people, but speak clearly to all with an appreciative eye, willingness to touch and an open heart.

Ron Senungetuk is an Alaskan Inupiat who grew up along the Bering Sea in Wales, the most western point on the American mainland. Retired from academics, he continues to be an active, vibrant artist living in picturesque Homer, Alaska on Kachemak Bay in the southwest side of the Kenai Peninsula. Ron is regarded as Alaska’s foremost living Native artist and founded the Native Arts Center while he was chair of the art department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for 30 years. His pieces in carved and colored wood build on the traditions of the Bering Sea people, but have a timeless elegance that make them both challenging and contemporary. Ron is the major force behind the resurgence of contemporary native art in Alaska and has stimulated & supported the careers of numerous native artists, who have gained renown in their own right.

Works of art from Barry “Schgunaa” Smith and Ron Senungetuk are for sale during The Alaska Art Experience and you will find an insert to this program with pricing. A representative of The Arts Center In Orange, a community-based nonprofit, will be available to finalize your purchase. The Alaska Art Experience would not be possible without generous gifts from our supporters both in Alaska and from “the lower 48” (as Alaskans like to refer to all those parts of the USA beyond Alaskan borders). Special thanks to the outreach program of The Arts Center In Orange for getting together the Boys and Girls Club with Ron and Barry for an afternoon of art and culture. We are grateful for monetary and “in kind” support from our sponsors as well as gifts of time, enthusiasm and passion from all of our volunteers. We could not have brought The Alaska Experience to fruition without everyone’s collaboration, commitment and perseverance.

UPCOMING EVENTS: THE ALASKA ART EXPERIENCE

CURATOR’S RECEPTION
Charlottesville, VA
October 16th, 2010

THE ARTS CENTER IN ORANGE
The Morin Gallery, Orange, VA
Reception: November 11, 2010 6:30pm
November 11, 2010- December 22, 2010

ONLINE AT SAGE MOON GALLERY
www.sagemoongallery.com
October 2010- April 2011