Denise Wallace is an award-winning Alaska Native artist who is inspired by the stories of her Chugach Sugpiaq ancestors.

Wallace began her artistic journey as a student at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the late 70s. After graduating, she and her husband Samuel remained in Santa Fe creating and selling work from their studio and gallery for 20 years. In 1999, the Wallaces moved from New Mexico to Hawaii, where Denise's studio is currently located. In 2010, Denise’s husband Samuel passed away, but his influence on the couple’s work will forever be felt. She continues to work with her son, David Wallace as the main lapidary craftsman and shares her studio space with her daugher, Dawn Wallace Kulberg.

Denise's work has been featured in the major traveling exhibition, Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise and Samuel Wallace organized by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in Anchorage, Alaska; Craft in America 3, a PBS series, nationally touring exhibition and publication; Gifts of the Spirit: Works by Nineteenth Century and Contemporary Native American Artists, organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts and more. Wallace’s work is also housed in the permanent collections of the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in Anchorage, Alaska; the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, New York and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, California.

This interview was filmed at the Sante Fe Indian Market in August 2023. To learn more about Denise Wallace's work, visit her website:

https://denisewallacejewelry.artspan....