Customer Reviews

Icebreakers: Alaska's Most Innovative Artists

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This book does not reflect art in Alaska. Rather, it is a self-serving piece of work by a gallery director to promote sales in her gallery. If you want to pay [$$$] for a 'Vanity Press' book, this is it. However, it in no way represents real and important art in Alaska.

"ICEBREAKERS: Alaska's Most Innovative Artists" 1999 by Julie Decker is a labor of love: the love of artists and what they make. I bought one of these beautiful books even though I am not in it, and you may find it useful as an overview of the institution and academia sanctioned artists who formed careers around the defunct Visual Arts Center in the early 1980's in Anchorage, Alaska. This book features sumptious color and black and white photographs of the works of fifty artists who work in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Homer, or Juneau, as well as some from the villages and others who have since moved outside. Artist's statements are included with biographies showing the impressive careers of these talented individuals.

In her introduction, Ms Decker details the criteria she proposed for a survey to discover the `top' artists considered. These include the following: exceptionally high quality production, substantial body of work, respect of peers, income derived from art, recognizable style, individual works make statement 'beyond pure representation', production for 'Art's sake' without commercial consideration, willingness to experiment and 'push boundaries', significant impact on regional art scene.

Such are the seemingly contradictory hoops that Art Heroes have to jump through. Derive your income from art made without commercial consideration, and by experimenting, significantly impact your region without losing the respect of your peers.

This book is packed with text contributed by art movers and shakers in Alaska, and will enjoy first place as a primer on the lively Alaskan art scene. It will prove valuable to collectors of Alaskan contemporary art.

Note to aficionados: Ms Decker has released a new book titled "Found and Assembled in Alaska", another overview of Alaskan artists who turn trash into junk art.

Who knew such cutting-edge art was being created in Alaska? It is interesting to learn about this unique place and the unique artists that have called it home. The book is full of photographs of artwork that will appeal to a wide range of people. Very nicely done. A high-quality art book. Worthy of any coffee table and great as a gift.