Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Red Idiot Strings, wool yarn, steel wire, beeswax, nylon thread, sheep and reindeer rawhide, acrylic polymer, 2018.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs: TITIQ/MARK
Premiering February 6, 2027, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Anchorage Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art have co-organized Sonya Kelliher-Combs: TITIQ/MARK, a major exhibition opening at the Whitney in New York on February 6, 2027. The first mid-career survey of an Indigenous artist presented at the Whitney, the exhibition brings national attention to the work of an Anchorage-based artist whose practice draws on generations of Indigenous knowledge while exploring history, cultural continuity, self-determination, and relationships to land. The collaboration reflects the Anchorage Museum's commitment to advancing the work of artists from Alaska within national and international conversations about contemporary art.
An Iñupiaq and Koyukon artist based in Anchorage, Alaska, Kelliher-Combs (b. 1969) creates paintings, sculptures, and installations deeply informed by generational knowledge. The Iñupiaq word TITIQ, translated as "MARK" in English, carries multiple meanings, including the visible and invisible marks of colonialism and the physical mark-making essential to the artist's practice.
Spanning nearly two decades of work, the exhibition includes examples from ongoing bodies of work such as Curls, Remnants, Idiot Strings, and Secrets. Kelliher-Combs works with materials including marine mammal gut, paint, hair, fabric, animal hide, thread, and her own innovations with acrylic polymer. Her practice brings traditional methods of production, including gut processing and sewing, into dialogue with contemporary artistic experimentation.
Exhibition tour
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York: February 6–mid-July 2027
- Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati: October 22, 2027–February 27, 2028
- Anchorage Museum: Dates to be announced
Sonya Kelliher-Combs: TITIQ/MARK is co-organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Anchorage Museum. The exhibition is co-curated by Jennie Goldstein, Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Curator of the Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Julie Decker, Director/CEO, Anchorage Museum, with Rose Pallone, Curatorial Assistant, Whitney Museum of American Art.
Learn more about the exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.