In-person

"Arctic Highways" Members Opening and Program

2655 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107

206.789.5707

Meet artists Tomas Colbengtson, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, and Matti Aikio at the opening celebration of Arctic Highways. This special Members opening reception will feature a panel discussion with the artists moderated by PLU’s Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Dr. Troy Storfjell. Join us for this exclusive opportunity!

*Members: please click "Register Now" above and then log in with your email address to reserve your free ticket!

Speakers

Matti Aikio

Matti Aikio comes from Vuotso, a small reindeer-herding Sámi village in northern Finland.
Bio

Matti Aikio

Matti Aikio comes from Vuotso, a small reindeer-herding Sámi village in northern Finland.

He earned a bachelor of arts from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art in 2012. Aikio is a visual artist who works with photography and video, as well as with sculptural installations, sound art and music. He has also been a DJ since 2009. Aikio is interested in the concept of nomadism as a philosophy, culture and lifestyle. Along with his artistic practice, he is involved in nomadic reindeer herding, which his family has practiced for centuries.
Tomas Colbengtson

Tomas Colbengtson grew up in a small village near Björkvattnet in Tärna, under the polar circle of Sweden.
Bio

Tomas Colbengtson

Tomas Colbengtson grew up in a small village near Björkvattnet in Tärna, under the polar circle of Sweden.

Through his artwork, he asks how colonial heritage has changed Indigenous lives and landscapes, both of the Saemie and other Indigenous peoples. Through the struggle to revitalize his mother tongue, the South Saemie language, Colbengtson works with visual art, using Saemie history and collective memory as the source for his art. He is continuously experimenting with new forms of media and material, from overlay glass and metal printing to etching and digital art forms. This way, he seeks to assemble a language to formulate the loss but also rejuvenation of Saemie identity.

Colbengtson is also the initiator of one of the first art residencies for Indigenous artists: “Sápmi salasta -Sápmi embraces." He has been working as artist since 1991, and as Indigenous curator since 2016. He has exhibited in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Faroeisland, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Holland, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, Spain, Swiss, Sweden and the United States. Colbengtson is represented in the new Nationalmuseum in Oslo, Norway, as well as the Norwegian Sami parliament.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs

Sonya Kelliher-Combs received her BFA from University of Alaska, Fairbanks, MFA from Arizona State University.
Bio

Sonya Kelliher-Combs

Sonya Kelliher-Combs received her BFA from University of Alaska, Fairbanks, MFA from Arizona State University.

Her work has been shown in numerous individual and group exhibitions, including Sakahan (National Gallery of Canada), HIDE: Skin As Material Metaphor (National Museum of American Indian) and SITELINES: Much Wider Than a Line (SITE Santa Fe). She is a recipient of the prestigious United States Arts Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Fellowship, Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, Rasmuson Fellowship and is a recipient of the 2005 Anchorage Mayors Arts Award and 2010 Alaska Governor’s Individual Artist Award. Her work is included in the collections of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Anchorage Museum, Alaska State Museum, University of Alaska Museum of the North, Eiteljorg Museum, and National Museum of the American Indian. Kelliher-Combs currently lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska.
Troy Storfjell

Troy Storfjell is Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.
Bio

Troy Storfjell

Troy Storfjell is Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.

A Mark Sámi, from the Norwegian side, Professor Storfjell earned his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001, and has taught at PLU since 2005. His research focuses on the dynamics of Indigenous representation in literature and film, and on Sámi and trans-Indigenous aesthetics, criticism, and methodologies. He has served on the board of Romssa Sámi Searvi (Tromsø Sámi Searvi) and the Pacific Sámi Searvi, and on the Council of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Professor Storfjell is married to Kiana Weinschenk, with whom he has raised two sons, Espen and Nikolai.