Alaska Native Arts Foundation: Fine and wearable art, jewelry, sculpture by hundreds of Alaska Native artists :: Alaska Native art for gifts, collections, every day

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Theme banner - "Hand to Hand/Eye to Eye"

Welcome

Our goal is to promote and support Alaska Native arts and artists! We buy directly, give grants for indigenous arts education, and work to increase awareness of Alaska Native arts and cultures.

Hand to hand, eye to eye

Strength and fortitude. Shoulder against shield. Solid in hand, a weapon to wield.
Whether inner battles, outer struggles, daily hunts, or surprise attacks,
Native Jedis have long been striking back.
Artists carry on making blades for usual use, dolls with a full complement of gear and other working or display pieces of traditional hunting and fighting tools and scenes. Honoring Da-ka-xeen Mehner, teacher and artist, we celebrate and feature indigenous intrepidity, ingenuity, and invention.

The Alaska Native Arts Foundation’s online shop and bricks-and-mortar gallery feature the work of the over 900 Aleut, Alutiiq, Athabascan, Inupiat, Yup’ik, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Cup’ik, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida, "Eskimo," and "Indian" artists the Alaska Native Arts Foundation has worked with.

An ivory carver, a skin sewer, a sculptor, and a painter - The DVD "When the Season is Good" depicts the lives and art of four contemporary Alaska Native artists from the Bering Sea and Alaskan Arctic. Through their personal stories, the film explores the juncture of art, culture, economics and survival in some of the most remote places in the world, where long-held cultural traditions and lifestyle of hunting, fishing, and gathering exist alongside everyday modern life.

Subsequent films in this series will focus on indigenous artists from other regions of Alaska.

(2005, 65 minutes)

It slices! It dices! It can skin a large land mammal in mere minutes!

All hyperbole aside, the ulu is truly an amazing knife. In the case of this beautiful ulu made by Willie Wassilie, it

This special Alutiiq hair pin is made out of wood with Alutiiq marking and topped with an ivory tip.

Wooden walrus mask with real walrus whiskers and ivory tusks; surrounded by two ulus with ivory handles, two ivory arrowheads, and two steel knives with ivory handles being supported by brass covered steel pegs.

We live, surrounded by space, and by things with shape, mass, volume. We carve our own forms into the air around us, pressing it away with our skin. As three-dimensional beings, sculptural artists define and express inner landscapes, visions, thoughts through materials with thickness, heft, and dimension.

Stone. Ivory. Wood. Bronze. Bone. Alaska Native sculptors impress the images of their minds onto, into these deep, rich materials. As skins became qayaqs, wood became hunting helmets, rye grass became baskets, hubcaps became sculptures; the resources of people

Knife with antler and ivory handle. Leather sheath has polar bear fur.

Miniature ulu with and antler handle with a bear paw carved on the handle.

Ivory carving of a man on top of a Killer Whale with Tlingit designs on whale with a face in front and polar bear hair coming out of the spout. This man has a wooden knife into the Killer Whale trying to rescue his wife that is in the Killer Whales mouth. This carving is on a cottonwood stand.

This ivory carving has an awl decorated with designs of blue and green paint. Connecting the awl to an ivory fish are ivory chain links. The chain links and the fish are also decorated with designs of blue and green paint.

This doll is made of traditonal material from the St. Lawrence Island Siberian Yupik culture. The head is made out of old fossilized ivory with baleen inlay eyes. Seal gut parka with seal skin lining shirt, pants, mukluks. The hands are carved out of ivory. The harpoon is ivory and wood. Bolo ties with walrus tooth artifact for ball, and feathers to catch a bird. A spear in one arm and a baleen strip in the other hand. The doll comes with a baleen sled to bring his catch to town.

Visit Our Gallery

In town? Come visit our gallery located in downtown Anchorage at 500 W. 6th Avenue.
Current Exhibit:
"Weapons of Mass Defense" by Da-ka-xeen Mehner. First Friday 5:30-8pm.

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	Did you know...
	Nass River Tsimshian are credited with originating the Chilkat weaving technique.
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	Shop with a Cause
	The Alaska Native Arts Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization promoting, supporting and celebrating Alaska Native arts and artists..
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Phone: 907.258.ANAF (2623) Email: info@alaskanativearts.org

Visit our Gallery: 500 West 6th Avenue :: Anchorage, Alaska

Gallery Hours: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM