Sonya Kelliher-Combs

Sonya Kelliher-Combs is a Native American artist who works primarily with organic structures such as walrus gut, which was used for centuries by Native Americans in making Inupiaq "overcoats". Her work has been described as "[moving] beyond oppositions between Western/Native culture, self/other, and man/nature, in order to examine their interrelationships and interdependence while also questioning accepted notions of beauty."

Early and personal life Kelliher-Combs was born during 1969 in Bethel, Alaska and brought up in Nome, Alaska. It was exhibited at the "Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor" exhibition and Kelliher-Combs has stated that animal skin has been a big part of her life and that the artwork is meant to simply demonstrate this significance in a physical form as pieces of dry reindeer and sheep rawhide are mounted onto a wall in 3 horizontal rows. It was exhibited in "New Work" and is made up of 140 large red acrylic polymer curled strips meant to resemble dried fish. She dipped the strips into polymers to showcase how plastic was used in the past to keep fish fresh, stating that it was much like how it is used today although by using the plastic in a different manner. this art was made in 2013 and exhibited at "The Things We Carry". This piece was made by Kelliher-Combs after 3 of her uncles had killed themselves. Per the artist, this piece is meant to illustrate people as a whole and discuss the decline of native cultural traditions in today's society. The series involved a small room with "twenty-nine rectangular constructions" for viewers to absorb.

Unraveled Secrets Created in 2006 and exhibited in Modo Gallery, Hudson, NY, Unraveled Secrets is Kelliher-Combs's expression of the many layers that make up identity. Inspired by Kelliher-Combs's complex racial identity, Unraveled Secrets presents identity as layers of "construct built on honesty and insight, resistance to and respect for tradition" Unraveled Secrets is a "mixed-media installation"