Alvin Amason Delights

Alvin Amason mingles at his Alaska House: New York show

Sugpiaq artist Alvin Amason developed his world view in a remote Unangan village on Kodiak.  A somewhat charmed past, for the bold use of color and whimsy which define his work whisper of happy afternoons exploring with his maternal grandfather.


Eli Matrokin was a tradition bearer and a bear guide, and their adventures were captured as the boy drew fanciful depictions of the animals that surrounded them.

Amason left the Rock to study art at Central Washington University and Arizona State.  While he was inspired by the expressionistic viewpoint of Dutch American abstract artist Willem de Kooning, Amason's large, loose, and colorful style focused on the familiar territory of Kodiak's land and sea animals.

A seabird flies in front of Amason's walrus

Good natured and insightful, Amason's work often includes appendages, an idea that sprang from the oil lampadas which project from the walls of Kodiak's Russian Orthodox Church.

Several of the paintings currently available include appendages of trees and birds, but his bears dominate the collection gathered from Alaska House New York's holdings. They are delightfully larger than life, and often engage in playful confrontation.

Amason is currently the director of Native Arts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and one of Alaska's best known contemporary artists. His wonderful expression is featured at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the Ted Stevens International Airport.