Please join our newly arrived IAIA Artist-in-Residence (A-i-R) artists, Tamara Ann Burgh (Swede and Inupiaq-Kawerak) A-i-R ’21 and Brian Walker II (Inupiat and Deg Hit’an) ’20, for dinner and a chance to experience their artistic processes firsthand. Dinner is served from 5–6 pm, and a visit with the artists in their studios is from 6–7 pm. Burgh will be in the A-i-R Studio in the Academic Building, while Walker will be in the Sculpture Gallery in the Allan Houser Haozous Sculpture and Foundry Building. Free and open to the public.

For more information about the A-i-R Program, contact Angelica Gallegos, Interim A-i-R Manager and Museum Studies Visiting Faculty, at agallegos@iaia.edu or (505) 424-2369.

Tamara Ann Burgh

Tamara Ann Burgh

March 4–April 12, 2024

Moving alternately between Colorado and Illinois as a child, Tamara Ann Burgh (Swede and Inupiaq-Kawerak) A-i-R ’21 jokes she was raised on Interstate 80. As an adult, she has lived and worked in Alaska, Australia, Wisconsin, and Chicago, establishing careers in graphic arts, product design, contract sculpting, and publishing.

For some twelve years, she put her career on hold to care for her dementia-inflicted mother. After her mother passed in 2016, Tamara prioritized her creativity to that of a fine artist and relocated her home and studio from Arkansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Tamara has always been an avid student of religion, spiritual symbolism, mysticism, and classical and Native American myth. Through her metaphysical studies, she has established a library of books by authors such as Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Joseph Campbell, Jidda Krishnamurti, Carolyn Myss, David R. Hawkins, Abraham Hicks, and many more.

For most of her life, Tamara lived and worked in Caucasian suburbia while her Native heritage remained in the background. Her art now focuses on what her Nativeness means to her, specifically how to image her experiences and beliefs as a mixed-race woman whose cultural heritages are radically different. Her work is typically an autobiographical symbolic reinterpretation of her experiences and cultural and spiritual beliefs.

Tamara’s creative work is a spiritual process inspired by archetypes, myth, scripture, universal ideas, and her carefully considered symbols. Her concepts inform the medium, and most of her highly detailed and complex work takes years to complete. Burgh states, “I choose to make art that is aesthetically complex and presents an element of the sacred. I hope to make works of art viewers can’t help but explore when they walk into the room.”

Brian Walker II

Brian Walker II

March 4–April 12, 2024 (Hybrid Residency) | In-person: March 4–22, 2024 | Virtual: March 23–April 12, 2024

Brian Walker II (he/him) ’20 is an Inupiat and Deg Hit’an mask carver from Anchorage, Alaska. He apprenticed with Alaskan Native Master Artists Perry Eaton and Alvin Amason. Growing up, living off the land, and being taught cultural traditions, Brian uses his identity and background to express Indigenous narratives. He attains his inspiration from invaluable life experiences and everyday encounters with the animals and people of Alaska.

Brian works at Cook Inlet Tribal Council’s Fab Lab as an educator, and his focus is to help model Indigenous identity work with Indigenous youth. He designs and instructs Indigenous Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) curriculum for students.

If you are an individual with a disability in need of any type of auxiliary aid or service to attend events, please contact IAIA’s ADA Office at least seven calendar days before the event or as soon as possible at adaoffice@iaia.edu or (505) 424-5707.