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

Qaluquq, Winter Whale Ceremonial, 1993

Lawrence Ulaaq Ahvakana
American Iñupiat (born 1946)

Location: South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia

About the Artwork

Qaluquq, Winter Whale Ceremonial is a hand carved and painted three panel wall sculpture by Inupiat (Native Alaskan) artist Lawrence Ahvakana. The imagery represents and interprets symbols and elements of a traditional ceremony, in which the spirits of whales are sent south to a sacred place, guided by the dance and song of the thunderbird.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with South Puget Sound Community College.

About the Artist

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.