Finding the Way Home: A Contemporary Approach to an Ancient Tradition
Presentation by Jennifer Angaiak Wood
Date & Time
Wednesday, November 18, 2026
7 p.m.
This event is in the past.
Tickets
FREE and open to the public;
Registration required
Registration coming soon.
Location
VIRTUAL EVENT
Join us from your home!
This is a virtual event.
In this presentation, Jennfier Angaiak Wood will discuss her Yup'ik ancestry, give an overview of Yup'ik artistic tradition, and share examples of how she incorporates historic design elements into her contemporary artworks.
This event is made possible by Friends of Native Art.
About the Speaker
Jennifer Angaiak Wood is Yup’ik, Irish, and Italian. Her parents are Andy and Marie Angaiak of Fairbanks, AK, and her grandparents are Mike and Susie Angaiak of Tununak, AK, and Kip and Pat Morey of Menlo Park, CA. Jennifer was born and raised in Fairbanks, AK. The Yup’ik side of her family is from Tununak, AK, and she spent summers there with her family when she was growing up. The experiences she had there greatly inform her artistic expression, and her main focus is on carving masks from that region. The designs she uses are inspired by ancestral artworks, but incorporate modern materials and concepts to emphasize that the Yupiit, as well as all Indigenous people, are a contemporary culture, not just an historic one. Her first carving teacher was Ron Manook, her high school Alaska Native Arts teacher. He passed away in 1999, so she has been mostly self-taught since then, though she has been able to work with some artists in the Seattle area since moving there in 2015, and they have shown her how to use adzes and traditional bent knives. Jennifer now lives in Indianola, WA, with her husband and two kids, and works out of her home studio.
