Artwork copyright Lawrence Ulaaq Ahvakana. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Bench Dancer, 1995

Lawrence Ulaaq Ahvakana
(American | Inupiat, born 1946)

Location: Chautauqua Elementary, Vashon Island

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Artist Lawrence Ahvakana hand-carved and assembled the mixed media sculpture Bench Dancer to depict a woman posed energetically sitting on a small bench. He notes that "in some Inupiaq Tradition, the place to dance for the community is so full on benches the women would just dance where they are."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Vashon Island School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Native Alaskan artist Lawrence Ulaaq Ahvakana (Inupiat) creates sculptural artworks representative of his Inupiat culture and symbols. He is inspired by the oral histories and legends passed down through his family.

Ahvakana spent his childhood in Barrow, Alaska, part of the Inuit Nation that spans from Siberia in Eastern Russia, to Greenland in Northwestern Europe. He states, "My first introduction to the Arts was watching my mother, who is a very competent skin sewer... The dances and songs of the Inupiaq tradition is the oral history of my people. It is the emotional interpretation of our respect and involvement within the environment of the North Slope of Alaska." Ahvakana earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture and Glass Arts from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1972. He is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. He lived in Suquamish, Northwestern Washington, for many years, and is currently based in Alaska.