Lawrence “Larry” Ahvakana is one of the most celebrated artists from Alaska. A master of many artistic disciplines and different media, Ahvakana has been consistently producing masterpieces in stone, wood, paper, glass, and metal for the last six decades. Beginning his formal art training with Apache artist Allan Houser (1914-1994) at the Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ahvakana also studied at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). [1] Ahvakana was also the first known Indigenous artist to work with glass [2] and has been a major force in the innovation of Native American and Alaska Native art. While Ahvakana makes incredible wooden masks and has worked with bronze castings since his early days at IAIA, his human figures in stone are iconic and present in virtually every major collection, public or private, within Alaska.

This sculpted Arizona pipestone bust depicts the torso and serene face of a Greenlandic woman with her hair tied in a customary top knot with beads. This sculpture is an important piece within Ahvakana’s body of work for a number of reasons. It’s unusual for being sculpted in pipestone (which is rarely, if ever, used in an artwork of this size), a nod to his time and work in the American Southwest. Another connection to his training at IAIA is the face of the woman herself, who bears a strong resemblance to the bronze and stone faces of Alan Houser’s work. The chosen subject matter is also significant, as the depiction of a woman from Greenland by an Inupiaq artist from Alaska is a celebration of the ancient and contemporary ties between these two northern communities. The manner in which the bust is rendered, with large, smooth breasts and absent arms, recalls classical sculpting traditions from the Western art historical canon. Finally, please note that this bust is the original stone work from which a series of bronze castings have been made by the artist.

1. Larry Ahvakana, http://ahvakana.com/resume.htm. Accessed March 14, 2025.

2. Personal communication from the artist.

Christopher W. Smith