Nicholas Galanin

Fellowship Artist

Fellowship: Red (2013)

Cultural Affiliation: Tlingit/Aleut

Galanin hails from Sitka, Alaska, where he currently lives. He studied with traditional master carvers such as Will Burkhart (his uncle) and Jay Miller (Haida) to acquire his traditional master apprenticeship in carving in 1997. He graduated from the University of Alaska Southeast with an Associate of Arts in 1999, London Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Silversmithing and Jewelry Design in 2003, and Massey University with a Masters of Indigenous Visual Arts in 2007. In 2011, he was the recipient of the Rasmuson Individual Artist Award, and in 2008, he won Best Experimental Film at imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto. Galanin was an adjunct professor at the arts department at the University of Alaska—Southeast from 2002 to 2006, and he is also a musician performing under the name of “Indian Nick.” Utilizing multi-disciplinary technologies such as video and photography, as well as taxidermy and Bible pages, his work grapples with the issues of authenticity and fiction inherent in both the identification and presentation of Native art.