An Iñupiaq and Athabascan artist, Sonya Kelliher-Combs works in sculpture and mixed-media painting. Raised in the Northwest community of Nome, Alaska, she grew up learning cultural skills like skin sewing and beading. These traditions inform her practice, where some meanings are explicit, and others remain obscured. Her ongoing work regarding secrets reveals the complexity of concealment itself. Small Secrets sets the tone for the exhibition, addressing themes of vulnerability, contemplation, and layered meaning. She draws from historical, familial, and cultural symbolism to form imagery that speaks about abuse, marginalization and the historical and contemporary struggles of Indigenous peoples.
Natani Notah is a mixed-media artist and a proud member of the Navajo Nation. Rooted in the framework of Indigenous Feminism, her practice seamlessly blends surrealism and minimalism. Notah’s works on paper delve into themes of duality and multiplicity, characterized by a striking immediacy. Her collages, composed of hand-drawn imagery interwoven with photographic fragments, engage in a dynamic dialogue with the carefully carved white space that surrounds them. This interplay transforms her compositions into visual poetry, offering a glimpse into the artist’s stream of consciousness.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs (b. 1969 Bethel, Alaska; lives Anchorage, US) received a BFA from University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and an MFA from Arizona State University. She is a recipient of the Anchorage Cultural Council’s Mayor’s Awards for the Arts, the State of Alaska Governor’s Award for the Arts, Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship, Eiteljorg Fellowship, Native Arts and Cultures Artist Fellowship, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painters and Sculptors Grant. Her work can be found in numerous private and public collections including the Alaska State Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, Anchorage Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, British Royal Museum, Institute of American Indian Art Museum of Contemporary Native Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Natani Notah(b. 1992, San Bernardino, US) holds a BFA with a minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Cornell University and an MFA from Stanford University. Notah has exhibited her work at institutions, such as DOCUMENT Chicago, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA), Marin Museum of Contemporary Art (Marin MOCA), Wattis Institute of Contemporary Art, Tucson Desert Art Museum, Longmont Museum, apexart NYC, among others. Notah has received awards from Art Matters, International Sculpture Center, and the San Francisco Foundation. Her work has appeared in Artforum, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Forbes, and Sculpture Magazine and she has completed artist residencies at the Studios at MASS MoCA, Santa Fe Art Institute, Vermont Studio Center, as well as fellowships with the Headlands Center for the Arts, Kala Art Institute, and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
