Public Art

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Antony Gormley
Stainless steel, 24 ft x 12 ft x 12 ft, 2010
Sixth Avenue and C Street

Habitat meditates on the condition of urban man in relation to nature, a relevant topic for Alaskans whose lives are so entwined with the environment. The 37,000-pound sculpture was created from 57 stainless steel boxes, which are stacked to depict a seated person with arms crossed over knees. Gormley was inspired by Anchorage’s city grid and the architecture of the Anchorage Museum’s 2010 addition. Welders from Steelfab, Alaska’s largest steel fabrication facility, spent more than 1,700 hours constructing this complex structure, using skills learned building oil field equipment.

Antony Gormley has built his reputation with large-scale, outdoor sculptures of the human figure, a universal image understood around the globe. His steel sculpture Angel of the North – standing 66 feet tall with a wingspan of 178 feet – has become a major tourist attraction for Northern England. The same can be said of his Quantum Cloudsteel sculpture on the Thames in London. Habitat is the British artist's first commissioned wo

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Robert Pfitzenmeier
Aluminum, 20 ft x 25 ft x 9 ft, 1985
Seventh Avenue and A Street

Pfitzenmeier likens this geometric design to geological formations of mineral crystals. The work is playful and inviting, designed so visitors can walk under and around the sculpture and experience it from different angles. The sculpture weighs about 7,000 pounds, but because the shapes taper to narrow points at ground level, the work gives the illusion of something very light that is barely secured. The bold red color was chosen to contrast with the white snow and dark skies of Alaska winters.

Robert Pfitzenmeier has a degree in metalsmithing and ceramics from Syracuse University. He worked with artist George Sugarman prior to overseeing the metals shop at the Visual Arts Center of Alaska from 1981-84. He has taught at several institutions including Parsons School of Design. He had a solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum in 1979. He lives on the East Coast.

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Ned Smyth
Stone and marble, 20 ft x 24 ft, 1985
Above Seventh Avenue museum doors

Smyth created a mosaic of a great, mythic owl to “protect” the museum and to reflect the museum’s role as guardian of Alaska history and culture. Smyth chose an owl because of its mythical, spiritual and cultural connections. The work is interpreted in many different ways. In some cultures, the owl symbolizes death; in others, the owl symbolizes wisdom and is the creature that brings knowledge to the world.

Ned Smyth is a prominent New York artist who has created more than 30 large-scale public installations across the country including Upper Room, the first art project commissioned for Battery Park City, N.Y. His international exhibition history includes The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, PS1 and Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Athena Tacha
Glass, 4 ft x 26 ft x 20 ft, 1985
Museum Atrium

This glass-block sculpture was designed to suggest ice and to anchor the atrium’s reflecting pool. The multi-level, geometric maze of 1,650 glass blocks complements the atrium’s art deco sensibility. Although all the pieces are rectangular, the progressions of length and height create triangular and pyramidal patterns from several points of view. Over time, museum visitors began treating the pool as a wishing well. The museum collects about $400 in coins from the pool annually and invests the funds in educational programs.

Athena Tacha is a pioneer in environmental site-specific sculpture and has won more than 50 public art commissions, including a 2-acre terraced garden in Philadelphia. Originally from Greece, Tacha taught and curated exhibitions at Oberlin College in Ohio from 1973 to 2000. Her international exhibition history includes the Venice Biennale and a 40-year career retrospective that traveled to several Greek galleries in 2010. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Ronald Senungetuk
Etched glass, 8 panels, 9 ft x 2 ft, 2010
Sixth Avenue transit stop

This etched glass artwork was inspired by the corralling of reindeer in Wales, Alaska. The stylized antler shapes convey a cluster of reindeer during the community’s herding celebration. After ID tags are put on the reindeer during this celebration, the animals are freed to roam for another year. The panels were etched by Lise Hoffman of Oceanid Designs, Anchorage.

Ronald Senungetuk is a prolific Iñupiat artist originally from the western Alaska village of Wales. Dedicated to providing educational opportunities for young Native artists, Senungetuk founded and directed the University of Alaska Fairbanks Native Arts Center (1965–1986) and was chair of the UAF Art Department from 1977-86. He trained at the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology and studied metalsmithing and sculpture on a Fulbright Fellowship at Statens Håndværks og Kunstindustriskole Skole in Oslo. He’s a recipient of the Rasmuson Foundation’s Distinguished Artist award. He had a solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum in 1991. He lives in Homer, Alaska.

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Rachelle Dowdy
Concrete, height varies 4 to 8 ft, 2006
To the right of museum entrance

These four sculptures address Anchorage residents’ close co-habitation with wildlife. The moose, bear, fox and goose represented by the sculptures all live in, or migrate through, Anchorage. Although at first glance the sculptures appear whimsical, Dowdy is using the metaphor of transformation to discuss man’s relationship to subsistence, development and the environment.

Rachelle Dowdy is a life-long Alaskan who was born in Fairbanks. She has received several large-scale public artwork commissions including From Here to There and There to Here at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. She had a solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum in 2010. She lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Jim McCain
Bronze, 7 ft x 5 ft x 2 ft, 1998
Museum Lawn

This bronze sculpture represents the rhythms of Alaska’s natural environment. McCain did not intend to depict distinct species, but to express certain universal insights about nature. The cycles of the seasons are represented by the sculpture’s circular, flowing movement. The sculpture was a gift to the municipality from Eunice Silberer and friends in memory of Richard Silberer, a local business leader and arts advocate.

After attending art schools in San Francisco and Chicago, Jim McCain fulfilled a childhood dream to move to Alaska. While working as a commercial fisherman, he learned the fundamentals of woodcarving from a fellow crewmember, a Haida carver. His public art projects include Spirit of the Wolfpack at West Valley High School in Fairbanks. He lives in Colorado.

Photographs courtesy of Chris Arend Photography

Antony Gormley
Stainless steel, 24 ft x 12 ft x 12 ft, 2010
Sixth Avenue and C Street

Habitat meditates on the condition of urban man in relation to nature, a relevant topic for Alaskans whose lives are so entwined with the environment. The 37,000-pound sculpture was created from 57 stainless steel boxes, which are stacked to depict a seated person with arms crossed over knees. Gormley was inspired by Anchorage’s city grid and the architecture of the Anchorage Museum’s 2010 addition. Welders from Steelfab, Alaska’s largest steel fabrication facility, spent more than 1,700 hours constructing this complex structure, using skills learned building oil field equipment.

Antony Gormley has built his reputation with large-scale, outdoor sculptures of the human figure, a universal image understood around the globe. His steel sculpture Angel of the North – standing 66 feet tall with a wingspan of 178 feet – has become a major tourist attraction for Northern England. The same can be said of his Quantum Cloud steel sculpture on the Thames in London. Habitat is the British artist's first commissioned work of art in the United States.