{"id":107131,"date":"2025-08-24T18:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/107131\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T18:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:32:12","slug":"triennial-exhibit-at-the-anchorage-museum-portrays-alaska-through-its-artists-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/107131\/","title":{"rendered":"Triennial exhibit at the Anchorage Museum portrays Alaska through its artists\u2019 eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The 2025 Triennial will be on view until Sunday, Sept. 7, on the fourth floor of the Anchorage Museum. (Photo by Jim Kohl \/ Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

There\u2019s still time to catch the 2025 Alaska Triennial<\/a>, a rare opportunity to see the breadth of artistic innovation happening across the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really like Alaska through its artists\u2019 eyes,\u201d said juror Mary Bradshaw, director of Visual Arts at the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon.<\/p>\n

The last day to see that exhibit will be Sunday, Sept. 7. Then it will be three years before the Anchorage Museum hosts a collection of its kind again. <\/p>\n

Bradshaw selected 47 artists from a pool of about 222 applicants through a blind jury process for the exhibit. (Disclosure: A family member of the author of this article was a featured artist in the Triennial.) What makes the Triennial stand out is that it only includes recent work \u2014 created since 2022 \u2014 and is open to all mediums. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat hit me immediately was just the sheer amount of different mediums that folks were working in \u2014 textiles, paper, woodwork, video, quill work,\u201d Bradshaw said. \u201cIt was really incredible to see the mastery people had over so many different forms.\u201d <\/p>\n

Through it all, there is a connecting thread, Bradshaw said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithin Yukon art, the landscape is kind of always present in some way, even if it isn\u2019t directly depicted,\u201d Bradshaw said. \u201cThat feeling is definitely here too \u2014 how much this land shapes us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cPlay Place,\u201d by Joshua Demain, 2024. Oil paint on copper panel. (Photo courtesy Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not always the landscape you\u2019d expect. One of the standout pieces, \u201cPlay Place\u201d by Joshua Demain, is a small, jewel-like oil painting depicting sunset over a South Anchorage intersection. An intense, joyous burst of color lights up a sagging McDonald\u2019s sign and retail storefronts. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo convey the message that beauty is everywhere, much of my work focuses on everyday encounters of the sublime that are frequently incongruent with our preconceived notions of picturesque beauty,\u201d Demain wrote in an artist statement. \u201cFrequently incongruent with preconceived notions of picturesque beauty\u201d may be the most gentle description of an Anchorage commercial corridor on record.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cHouse Between Trees,\u201d by Grace Choi, 2023. Acrylic on linen. (Photo courtesy Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

Demain\u2019s sunset hangs next to Grace Choi\u2019s large painting \u201cHouse Between Trees,\u201d set in a residential neighborhood near downtown Anchorage. On a bright winter day, two people and a dog stand together in front of a yellow house as blue shadows stretch across the berms. It\u2019s a scene that feels as cozy as a snow day off from school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated by the sparks that shine within the more mundane moments of life that often go unnoticed,\u201d Choi wrote. It\u2019s \u201cthat familiar feeling of home where you\u2019d take a look at my painting and think \u2018Oh! I\u2019ve been there before!\u2019 and call over your friends or family to recall specific memories of that place and time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWhat Good is Fruit that is not Sweet?,\u201d by Young Kim, 2022. Hand-bound book. (Photo courtesy Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

In \u201cWhat Good is Fruit that is not Sweet?,\u201d Young Kim\u2019s handmade, stab-bound book is designed to resemble the Korean sillok, or the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, of Korean history. It contains photographs documenting life with his aging mother as she confronts changes to her health and mobility, exploring the \u201crelationship as parent and child and how roles shift as time persists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scenes like these could be set in any number of communities across the world, but they are still \u201cas much of an Alaska scene as, say, Denali,\u201d Bradshaw said. <\/p>\n

When Alaska\u2019s famed natural landscape is the focal point, the artists of the Triennial exhibit often reveal it in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cTanana Braids,\u201d by Gail Davidson, 2023. Textile. (Photo courtesy Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

Gail Davidson\u2019s \u201cTanana Braids\u201d uses rug hooking and braiding to create an aerial topography of the Tanana River. Melanie Lombard gathered the leaves of devil\u2019s club \u2014 a plant synonymous with summer days \u2014 and treated them in a cyanotype process, exposing them for 48 hours under \u201csunlight, moonlight, and even under the aurora borealis,\u201d Lombard wrote. What resulted are frosty blue and white exposures resembling the crystalline structures of snow flakes.<\/p>\n

In \u201cDream Space II: Subsistence & Reminiscence,\u201d Ethan Lauesen depicts a figure berry-picking, an innocuous-seeming activity infused with an atmosphere of palpable discomfort.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cDream Space II: Subsistence & Reminiscence,\u201d by Ethan Lauesen, 2023. Etching, aquatint, and chine-coll\u00e9. (Photo courtesy Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

\u201cThe prints I develop archive my experiences as a visibly Queer Alaskan Native and how I am perceived in Alaskan public spaces,\u201d Lauesen wrote in an artist statement. \u201cThe work I create directly references the emotions associated with the tension surrounding doubt and lack of acceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Events of recent years show their influence in many of the pieces. A quilt by Arlitia Jones incorporates unconventional materials including \u201cdrops of blood and puppy chew marks,\u201d reflecting the artist\u2019s experience during COVID-19 with a new puppy. In Lauren Stanford\u2019s \u201cAftermath,\u201d the scars carved by wildfire mark the form of a roaring bear. A budding fiddlehead fern emerges from the figure, a reminder that \u201camong the ashes, in the aftermath of loss, there is always hope,\u201d Stanford wrote. <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cAftermath,\u201d by Lauren Stanford, 2022. Ceramic. (Photo courtesy Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

Bradshaw received short artist statements along with the works as part of the blind jury process, but wasn\u2019t informed of the identity of the artists, which led to some surprises. <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cType #5,\u201d by Javid Kamali, 2024. Plastic medication bottles and acrylic paint on canvas. (Photo courtesy Anchorage Museum) <\/p>\n

\u201cType #5\u201d by Javid Kamali, uses prescription pill bottles melted down and formed into balls, which were then mounted to a cobalt blue canvas. The abstract piece is a commentary on the issue of medical waste, which gained additional resonance for Bradshaw when she later learned the artist is also a doctor.<\/p>\n

Collectively, the show is an intriguing record of 2022-24. \u201cWhat I hope is that this show is a glimpse of the last three years of art making. We can\u2019t show everything, but this is a taste of it,\u201d Bradshaw said. <\/p>\n

The 2025 Alaska Triennial will be on view until Sunday, Sept. 7 on the fourth floor of the Anchorage Museum. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Sunday, with extended hours until 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 5. Painting at the End of the Ice Age<\/a>, featuring landscapes by Cordova-based artist David Rosenthal, closes the following week on Sept. 14, 2025. (anchoragemuseum.org<\/a>; 625 C St.) <\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n

Reporting for this project was supported by the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 Triennial will be on view until Sunday, Sept. 7, on the fourth floor of the Anchorage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3292,30463,14891,70761,70762,228,226,227,229,88,70763],"class_list":{"0":"post-107131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-alaska","9":"tag-ama","10":"tag-anchorage","11":"tag-anchorage-museum","12":"tag-anchorage-museum-association","13":"tag-arts","14":"tag-arts-and-design","15":"tag-artsanddesign","16":"tag-design","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-www-anchoragemuseum-org"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}