Argent Kvasnikoff
Ninilchik, Alaska
Ninilchik, Alaska
Bio: Argent Kvasnikoff was born in Homer AK, and is a member of the Ninilchik Tribe. While Kvasnikoff has not had formal studio training, his education has always revolved around the arts in some capacity. During his time at Capilano University in Vancouver, Canada, he became more interested in fine arts while studying anthropology and language and discovering the unique but not commonly known connections between art movements and civil developments.
Currently, much of Kvasnikoff’s work is related to his indigenous heritage and the near-extinct Dena’ina language. Qena Sint’isis is a series of works related to the written Dena’ina alphabet that he created, which uses past and contemporary symbols of Dena’ina culture and its traditional territories.
Statement: Through my work I evaluate potential aspects of world society’s future through ideas of spirituality, communication, and economics. Much of my drive is the need to make sense of changing perceptions of language and culture to deconstruct the rapid de-romanticizing of contemporary life in the recent information era. This is an effort to allow the reestablishment of venerability and ceremony in everyday banalities to harmonize seemingly contrary economic and spiritual concepts. My process aims to illuminate the pitfalls of how, in a very general sense, global contemporary culture is passively described as inherently counterproductive and less deserving of reverence than previous civilizations or cultures.
My media of choice are ink and paper, as they are materials which universally represent the thin line between the two schools of human visual expression: representational drawings and illustrations, and abstractions in the form of symbols and written language. I imagine my body of work to be an infinite written language in which each piece represents a single letter or syllabic phrase that correlates to the personal conveyance displayed.
With my art and its related applications in various forms of design projects, I want to inspire new pathways of living in humanity's beginning synthesis era.
Currently, much of Kvasnikoff’s work is related to his indigenous heritage and the near-extinct Dena’ina language. Qena Sint’isis is a series of works related to the written Dena’ina alphabet that he created, which uses past and contemporary symbols of Dena’ina culture and its traditional territories.
Statement: Through my work I evaluate potential aspects of world society’s future through ideas of spirituality, communication, and economics. Much of my drive is the need to make sense of changing perceptions of language and culture to deconstruct the rapid de-romanticizing of contemporary life in the recent information era. This is an effort to allow the reestablishment of venerability and ceremony in everyday banalities to harmonize seemingly contrary economic and spiritual concepts. My process aims to illuminate the pitfalls of how, in a very general sense, global contemporary culture is passively described as inherently counterproductive and less deserving of reverence than previous civilizations or cultures.
My media of choice are ink and paper, as they are materials which universally represent the thin line between the two schools of human visual expression: representational drawings and illustrations, and abstractions in the form of symbols and written language. I imagine my body of work to be an infinite written language in which each piece represents a single letter or syllabic phrase that correlates to the personal conveyance displayed.
With my art and its related applications in various forms of design projects, I want to inspire new pathways of living in humanity's beginning synthesis era.