Fairbanks Arts May Exhibition with Aldona Jonaitis and Alaska Wild

Join Fairbanks Arts in the Bear Gallery for our May exhibitions: Sentience by Aldona Jonaitis and alaskaWILD 2023 by Alaska Society of Outdoor and Nature Photographers (ASONP).

The exhibitions are on view in the Bear Gallery May 5-27. First Friday is May 5 from 12–7 p.m., with an opening reception from 5–7 p.m. The rest of the month, the gallery will be open Monday–Saturday from 12–6 p.m.

Aldona Jonaitis is the retired Director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and curator of the Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery. Born in New York City, Aldona received a Ph.D. in Northwest Coast Indigenous Art from Columbia University and moved to Fairbanks in 1993. Her exhibition Sentience explores animals’ connection to the world and their unique aesthetic qualities through pastels. Inspired by the sentient nature and beauty of animals, Sentience calls to protect the conscious, mindful, and sentient subjects of Aldona’s work from humanity’s venal and egocentric actions – climate change, the devastation of the environment for profit, rapid plant and animal extinctions, and destruction of the oceans.

Alaska Society of Outdoor and Nature Photographers (ASONP) was founded in the mid-1980s and is an educational, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting public education, self-improvement, and ethics in outdoor and nature photography. alaskaWILD 2023, juried by Jessica Rix, marks the 36th year of annual juried photo exhibitions sponsored by ASONP. Each year ASONP call for photos from all over Alaska in the following categories: Fauna, Flora, Iconic Alaskan Fauna, Intimate Landscapes, Landscapes, and Monochromatic.