Hours:
Tuesday – Friday, 11:00 – 6:00; Saturday, 11:00 – 5:00
Closed Sunday and Monday
Additional Hours on First Fridays 5:00 – 7:00 pm
907-563-2787 • 3555 Arctic Boulevard • Anchorage 99503
Mariano Gonzales
First Friday Reception,
August 7
5:00 – 7:00
Mariano Gonzales
Diverse Creations
As a child, I spent a lot of time creating interesting images that were beyond visual and admired by my relatives.
Then, in 1959 when Alaska became a state, my family decided to move to the Great White North ( I’m not talking about ice and snow!). I experienced racism as a Hispanic in Alaska but I never took it seriously. I ignored elements of the white culture and continued to pursue my creativity!
When I graduated from Creekside Park Elementary and entered Ora Dee Clark Junior High and three years later East Anchorage High School, I had the choice of learning more visual arts techniques or being a musician. So, I decided to choose music, playing mostly the clarinet and later the saxophone and oboe.
When I graduated from high school, I attended the University of Alaska and focussed again on the visual arts. I had wonderful and talented professors including Wassily Sommers (painter), Patricia Austen (printmaker), Keith Appel (sculptor) and Alex Combs (ceramicist).
After graduating from UAA I joined the National Guard to learn Wheel Vehicle and Tank mechanics. (My draft number was 8 and I had absolutely no desire to kill or be killed by other brown people in Vietnam!)
I was later accepted into the Visual Arts Center of Alaska which was loaded with Alaska native artists and other artists of the paler persuasion!
While I focussed on Printmaking at the VAC, I eventually began learning metalsmithing. Eight months later, I was accepted into the MFA program in Metalsmithing at the Rhode Island School of Design with the encouragement of Lawrence Ahvakana. After graduating from RISD two years later, I came back to Anchorage and began teaching painting and drawing part-time at UAA. Eventually, I was hired as a professor at UAA and started the Metalsmithing program and eventually the Digital Design program.
Since then I’ve had many exhibitions in and outside of Alaska and in Europe.
35 years later I retired from UAA to become a Professor Emeritus and decided to take Ceramics classes for two years.
I’m still creating art and expect to until I pass away!
At South Restaurant
Jana Latham
Dreaming of Alaska
Artist Statement
New Work
After owning and running my own art gallery locally in Anchorage, Alaska for 14 years, in 2016 I discovered my true creative love…digital art.
Since 2016 I have practiced, experimented, and grown as a digital artist. I’m a self-taught artist, and I have taken many classes in digital art including in-person as well as online classes. I’ve watched countless hours of instruction and tutorial videos that have helped me learn new and constantly improving painting techniques. I’ve invested in software and hardware as well as several design programs that help me with my art. There are so many skills to acquire and explore!
My process starts with an idea, and then a photograph–either my own, or with a licensed photograph I purchase. Then the painting starts on my computer or tablet and can take many hours or days as I often go back to perfect and hone my vision. I use digital brushes, color pallets, layers, crops, fades, cutting and pasting, textures, and experimentation. I may start with a photo or several mixed photos as a base, but the end result is a piece of artwork straight out of my imagination.
I get my inspiration from the many wonderful, talented artists that were a part of my Anchorage gallery. After reflecting back on those gallery years, thinking of these dedicated and persevering artists helps to give me the gumption and bravery to put my art out there to the masses. Thank you friends.
At Crush Bistro
Denis Ryan
Life Appearing From
the Alaska Landscape
Life Appearing from the Alaska Landscape shows how life and place are inseparable. Created in Alaska’s vast and shifting wilderness, this body of work explores the relationship between land, wildlife, and sky, where every season reshapes the environment and every living thing responds to it.
Through photographs of bears moving across rivers, coastlines, and mountain valleys, Denis seeks to show animals not as subjects apart from nature but as part of a larger living system. Their daily rhythms mirror the cycles of the land itself, abundance and scarcity, movement and stillness, resilience and rest. Above them, the northern lights stretch across the dark sky, reminding us that even the atmosphere participates in the story of this place. Together, earth and sky form a quiet dialogue that defines life in Alaska.
Originally from rural County Tipperary, Ireland, Denis’s relationship with wilderness began early and grew through years of travel and exploration across the world. Yet it was Alaska that felt like home. Drawn by its raw landscapes, powerful wildlife, and sense of scale, he moved here out of a deep love for the place and now lives and works surrounded by the environments that inspire his photography.
With these images, Denis hopes to inspire people to connect more deeply with nature and wildlife. When we connect with the natural world, we move closer to living in harmony with Mother Earth. Through each photograph, he strives to bring viewers into the wild, to witness an animal in its own environment, to feel the quiet story in its behavior, and to awaken the bond that inspires protection, respect, and care.
