What Do I Do With My Hands?, October 13, 2026 6:30PM

Item details

Date

October 13, 2026 6:30PM

Location

Burke Museum

Name

What Do I Do With My Hands?

Description

Artist Alison Bremner shares past work, inspirations, as well as current and future projects previously under wraps in what she calls "the closest I will ever get to a studio visit."

Bremner holds a long relationship with the Burke from her time as a Bill Holm Center grantee studying the Tlingit creations in 2012, to participating as a curator in the Burke's exhibit Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired (2014-15), to co-curating of the inaugural Northwest Native Art Gallery for the opening of the New Burke in 2019, and most recently demonstrating her new formline nail art in the artist studio this year. On top of that, the Burke's Arts & Cultures collections hold 14 individual artworks by Alison Bremner from paintings, textiles, prints, as well as her drinkware collection from the 2024 Starbucks Artist Collaboration Series and most recently the 2026 FIFA World Cup Commemorative Orca Card.

Alison Bremner is a Tlingit artist born and raised in Juneau, Alaska, in the traditional homelands of the Tlingit people. Working in formline design, acrylic paint, wallpaper collage, digital drawings and found objects, Bremner tells contemporary stories that portray the current Tlingit experience - rejecting exotification while bringing visibility to the cultural nuances of daily Indigenous life. Culture is not stagnant. Through contact and technological revolution, Tlingit culture constantly adapts, observes, and claims space in the world. Bremner’s practice is rooted in traditional formline design learned directly from Tsimshian masters David Albert Boxley and David Robert Boxley. 

Tlingit art has always been a way of keeping history. Without setting out to, Bremner finds herself inside that continuum - depicting modern culture, events and stories through traditional formline design, carrying the practice of history-keeping forward into the contemporary moment.

Bremner’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Burke Museum (Seattle), British Museum (London), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Château-Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), the Frye Art Museum (Seattle), and the Hood Museum of Art (Dartmouth), among others. Notable collaborations include a national cup release with Starbucks, design consulting with PBS, and a merchandise collection for the Santa Fe Indian Market. Alongside her commercial and exhibition practice, Bremner is committed to creating work that returns to community such as pieces made for potlatches, dance, and ceremony.

Notes

This program is free to attend.