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Dear friends,

Please visit us in person or online to see our new acquisitions. Of course, we can only highlight a fraction of our selections in newsletters and on the website. If you are looking for a particular artist, subject or community, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

Revenge
Coming in September:
Whalebone Wonders
Opening reception Thursday
September 17, 2015
6-8 pm

Whalebone Wonders showcases three masterworks in whalebone - Revenge by Manasie Akpaliapik, Shaman Playing String Game by Nick Sikkuark, and Shaman Hunter by Augustin Anaittuq - and surrounds them with a number of smaller examples of Inuit artists' ingenious use of whalebone.

The whalebone used in these sculptures is archeological whalebone - hundreds of years old. (Raw whalebone is too oily to be carved until it has aged for a hundred years or more.) Carving whalebone required great skill and different tools and techniques than carving stone. Adzes and chisels could be used at a very shallow angle to shave away the surface. Files were of little use, since their teeth were clogged by the whalebone particles that were removed. The porous structure of the interior of the bone provided interesting textures, but also made it difficult to depict fine details.

Revenge (pictured above) is a superb example of Manasie Akpaliapik's ability to discover figures in the bone, and to lead the viewer to discover them through relatively minor modifications to the bone. Created from part of a whale's pelvis, a caribou antler, and a few inlaid additions, Revenge's central character speaks for itself. But the sculpture also includes a magnificent eagle (on the sculpture's left), an owl in full flight (on the back), two spirit heads (on the sculpture's right) and a caribou head (on the front below the caribou antler).

Revenge also figures in Susie Silook's brutally contemporary The spirit of vengeance and the destruction of the World Trade Center (pictured below). Silook, from Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, is a world-recognized contemporary artist, whose work often has one foot in the modern world and another in traditional themes and materials.

The other pieces in the exhibition range from traditional figural pieces (Head and Mother and child) to the shamanic (Shaman playing string game and Two heads) to intricate combinations of whalebone and ivory (Shaman and walrus and Drum dancer and walrus).

The spirit of vengeance and the destruction of the World Trade Center



2016 Cape Dorset Calendars are here!
Whale and calf
by Ike Kulowiyi
Vacation
Alaska on Madison will be closed August 15 - 23 for vacation. Come see us when we return at the end of August.
About Us

Alaska on Madison is a gallery of indigenous art of Alaska and Canada run by collectors for collectors. We feature Inuit art of the twentieth and twenty-first century Canadian Arctic, two-thousand-year-old objects from the Old Bering Sea cultures, and nineteenth century art from the Northwest Coast peoples and Yup'ik Eskimos. Our collection ranges from museum-quality works to more modest but still excellent works for private collectors, whether novice or sophisticated. We also have a selection of books that will enhance your appreciation of your collection.

Baffled by syllabic signatures? Learn how to interpret them by using our guide, Deciphering Inuktitut Signatures, and our Inuit Artist Search Tool.

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday 1:30 - 6:00 pm, but it's always a good idea to call or email in advance in case we have an appointment out of the gallery.


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Alaska on Madison | 1065 Madison Avenue, Second Floor | Between 80th and 81st Streets | New York | NY | 10028
AlaskaonMadison@gmail.com
www.AlaskaonMadison.com