Current Exhibits

(Re)Emergence: Contemporary Native Art and Design
May 22 through Dec. 31
This exhibition celebrates what it means to be Native in Alaska today. It features nearly 50 art works created during the past five decades by prominent Alaska Native artists such as James Robert Schoppert, Alvin Amason and Preston Singletary. The exhibition is flush with examples of Native artists transcending traditional media while embracing the past.

All Alaska Juried Exhibition XXXIII
On view May 22 through Oct. 3
For more than 30 years, the biennial All Alaska Juried Exhibition has recognized the unique contributions Alaska artists are making to the world of contemporary art. This year’s exhibition includes 44 art works in a variety of media including painting, film and sculpture. Works were chosen from a pool of 433 submissions by artists across the state. Anchorage artist Maria Shell won the Juror’s Choice Award with her vibrant quilt Colors Unfurled, aka If Betsy Ross Had My Stash. After the exhibition closes in Anchorage, it will tour to Juneau and Fairbanks.

Bradford Washburn: Glories of the Greatland
On view April 17 through Sept. 19
The majestic exhibit of Bradford Washburn’s black-and-white Alaska landscape photographs is back by popular demand. Washburn was recognized as an expert on Alaska’s mountains and glaciers, a brilliant photographer and America’s leading field cartographer. He made more than 50 trips to Alaska in a remarkable career that spanned seven decades. Many of his earliest photographs were created as Washburn hung partly out of an airplane, tethered by straps and buffeted by the winds as he directed the pilot while aiming his camera.

Kiska and Adak: War in the Aleutians
On view April 22 through Feb. 20, 2011
Early in World War II, Kiska Island was a hotly contested battlefield that figured prominently in Japanese and U.S. news. Today, the island is home to the physical remains of that era. U.S. bomb craters dot the tundra and Japanese gun barrels still point skyward, reminders of the air war’s ferocity. This digital art by Dirk H.R. Spennemann presents the Kiska battlefield filtered through an artist’s gaze. The photographs were taken during historic preservation fieldwork with the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Spennemann used digital darkroom techniques to create grittier images more evocative of the war. The exhibit also includes objects from the museum’s World War II and Cold War collections.

Rarefied Light
On view Sept. 3 through Oct. 31

Rarefied Light showcases the best of Alaska’s fine art photography. The Alaska Photographic Center sponsors this annual juried exhibition, the largest of its kind in the state. In this year’s competition more than 470 photographs were submitted by 83 Alaska artists: Fifty images were selected for the exhibition. Best of Show was awarded to both Maggie Skiba of Eagle River and Ward Hulbert of Anchorage.

Restorations: Sheryl Maree Reily Solo Exhibition
On view Sept. 3 through Oct. 10

A skilled, daring artist with a singular approach to current political and social issues, Sheryl Maree Reily boldly reveals the tension-fraught relationship between technology and survival. Using large scale installations sculpted mostly from plastic, she turns an everyday material into a medium for exploring the relationship between technology and the environment.