Anchorage Daily News

In her show "Walrus Family Portraits," Sonya Kelliher-Combs fills the International Gallery of Contemporary Art with intricate designs, textures, colors, delicate lines, layered shapes and surfaces of translucence and plasticity.

Born in Bethel and raised in Nome, Kelliher-Combs received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1992 and a master's from Arizona State University in 1998. In the decade since, she has assembled a portfolio that most artists would envy.

She uses acrylic polymers and polyurethane, combined with thread, gut, hair and other materials, to create what must be defined as mixed-media art. Those familiar with her work will recognize in this show the recurrent themes: pores, secrets, eddies, tattoos, strings, pocket and tusk forms -- metaphorical references to her life and culture.

Process-driven, the works evolve out of her exploration and experimentation with materials. But never far from the surface are the underlying emotions she feels for her people and their land. Inherent in her work is conflict and contrast: traditional and modern, Western and Native, man and nature.

"I am defined through my kinship and relationship with the land," she said.

A series of six small squares is called "Small Buried Walrus." The variations on a theme are done on wood with layered transparencies of whites and grays. Two tusk forms are delicately buried in each panel.

In "Large Buried Walrus Family Portrait," a beautiful Arctic surface is made of earth tones, icy grays and snowy whites. The earthy northern character is delicate and translucent. Much is lost and revealed in the applied layers. Curvilinear blue lines flow like rivulets through the plane.

A series of drawings is done with pen line and encaustic. Patterning ranges from geometric to organic floral. Hung by pins to exploit the dual-sided imagery, the rendering is loose but fine.

"Common Thread" is made up of rows of hung gut, perhaps walrus intestine. The forms are neatly sewn into pockets or horns. The tactile quality and muted tones maintain a classic aesthetic against the bright white gallery walls.

Kelliher-Combs wound thread through a series of needles pushed into the wall to create "Trim." They form an intricate pattern of traditional origins -- a meticulous and sensitive rendering, combining old and new.

Kelliher-Combs has made herself into an established and highly respected Alaska artist, melding the great traditions of her Native heritage with a sophistication borne of university study, hard work and a creative mind.

Reproducing and reintroducing the motifs and practices of the past fulfills some artists. They preserve and protect the cherished methods and imagery of history.

That's good. But artists like Kelliher-Combs are so rare because the challenges are so great. She continually forges her own unique vision, inspired by her cultural roots but in an intensely personal and contemporary style.

Like Alvin Amason, John Hoover and others, Kelliher-Combs has found a way to fast-forward the past into the present. She expresses in her stunning imagery both deep emotion and a cherished family history. Simultaneously, she produces abstract works of nuance and grace.

Don Decker is an Anchorage artist, teacher and writer.

WALRUS FAMILY PORTRAITS, a Sonya Kelliher-Combs' solo show, continues at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 427 D St., through August. The gallery is open noon-4 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. (www.igcalaska.org) COMMENT on this review or the exhibit at

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