The work of Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq and Athabascan) forges new paths in sculpture, painting, and drawing by incorporating both traditional and synthetic materials in the formation of a singular visual lexicon. From walrus gut to acrylic gel polymer, porcupine quill to nylon thread, her materials serve as the foundation for surfaces and forms that recall art historical movements like post-minimalism but reveal new kinds of beauty, new monuments to injustice, that emerge from her people and homelands.

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Kelliher-Combs' work is currently on view in An Indigenous Present at the ICA Boston curated by Jeffrey Gibson and Janelle Porter, Shifting Landscapes at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, Everyday Rebellions: Collection Conversations at Brooklyn Museum, NY and Princeton Collects at Princeton University Art Museum. Her work was recently included in Hello, the Roses curated by Julia Trotta at Hoffman Donahue and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA, Smoke In Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time at the Hudson River Museum, NY and in the Hawai'i Triennial at the Hawaii Contemporary.   Recent solo exhibitions include Secrets at Andrew Kreps (2024) Mark at Tureen (2023) and Stars (2023) and The Visceral Trilogy exhibitions at Alaska State Museum.

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A monograph of her work, Mark, was published by Hirmer Verlag in 2024, edited by Julie Decker, Ph. D.

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She is a recipient of the United States Arts Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Fellowship, Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, Rasmuson Fellowship, Anchorage Mayor’s Arts Award and Alaska Governor’s Individual Artist Award.

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Her work is included in the collections of Anchorage Museum, Alaska State Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, Forge Project, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Tia Collection, National Museum of the American Indian, University of Alaska Museum of the North, and Whitney Museum of American Art.

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CV