2019 has been an exciting and busy year so far and I am pleased to share an announcement with some other great news.

Adopt a Letter program

Today I have officially launched a Patreon page where my supporters can go to help the Qena Sint'isis Dena'ina alphabet and language project. I have been considering starting a crowdfunding program for this for quite some time and wanted to make sure it was meaningful to the spirit of what the alphabet is intended for. To do this I have set up the "Adopt a Letter" patronage tier where 44 patrons who sign up can select which letter of the alphabet they would like to symbolically adopt. Having the regular support that the Patreon platform provides will be a big help in more effectively meeting the expense and time challenges of producing new materials and projects to share the knowledge of this endangered language.

You can find my Patreon page at patreon.com/argentkvasnikoff

Art Workshops

In July I was invited to participate in a "Free Art at The Pratt" event at the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska. This fun workshop for all ages was put on by museum curators and it was centered around the Dena'ina alphabet I developed. We had a wonderful and engaging afternoon making crafts using language as art and sharing knowledge about the Dena'ina language. The museum is always hosting similar events so I suggest checking their schedule regularly.

Exhibit News

Behind the scenes preparations for my next exhibit, Apollo's Siheyuan at the Bunnell Street Arts Center in December, are going well and I cannot wait to be able to share its developments. Additionally, the Freed Formats: The Book Reconsidered exhibit tour is nearing its end with its final stops being made in Connecticut and upstate New York this autumn. If you are in the Atlantic or New England region please consider visiting one of these venues. The website of this project now has audio tour files about all of the artists and pieces featured, and they are a fascinating listen. Please see freedformats.com to have a listen


As always I am very appreciative of all the support for my work and I look forward to sharing more.

Chiqinik - Thank You

This year started with my most recent exhibit of Qena Sint'isis at the Leah J. Peterson gallery at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage and I would like to thank everyone who came to the viewing. This was a wonderful venue to show in and the upcoming weeks I will be updating my collection catalog to include the newest pieces and updated alphabet guide.

2019 is off to a fast start because the big news that I can now announce is that starting on March 30th 4 pieces of mine will be part of a touring exhibit called Freed Formats: The Book Reconsidered. This exhibit is curated by New York artists Alice Walsh and Chris Perry and features work by 50 international and US artists who use books, writing and written print as visual art mediums in various forms from sculpture to collage to experimental reading formats. Both Alice and Chris themselves specialize in book and paper art and I have been invited to show select pieces from the Qena Sint'isis collection to present writing as a visual medium. Included in my selections is a new piece titled Jeweled Dena'ina Alphabet Blocks which I have created just for this event.  The piece is a matrix of individually painted calligraphy squares representative of Dena'ina territory's geology and metallurgy using tones of volcanic black and shades of copper. It's connections of leather cording transforms the individual pieces into a singular, flowing written textile.

Freed Formats will be touring the New York and New England region throughout most of 2019. I am incredibly honored to be participating in this exhibit, and especially honored to be a part of the first showing at the historic Mark Twain Library in Redding, Connecticut, which will begin March 30th and end on April 28th.

Please follow the official Freed Formats Instagram account to see previews of the pieces as well as get updates on venue and showing dates.

Thank you very much, and I will be posting again very soon with details on new projects.

- Argent.