(1948 - ) Alvin Eli Amason is a Sugpiaq Alaskan painter and sculptor. He was raised in Kodiak and is of Alutiiq ancestry. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Arizona State University and taught for several years at Navajo Community College. Alvin Amason was raised on Kodiak Island. He served for 17 years as Director of Alaska Native Arts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. After retiring there, he created an Alaska Native Arts curriculum at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He’s influenced hundreds of artists encouraging them to be boldly creative. Throughout his teaching career, Amason has excelled as an individual artist, creating fun and whimsical pieces in widely mixed media. His work is on display across Alaska, the nation and internationally. Amason’s unmistakable style was most recently unveiled with enormous, beautiful installations in the new Rasmuson Wing of the Anchorage Museum. In 1997, Amason was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Nature Conservancy of Alaska. In 2004, he received the Rasmuson Foundation's Individual Artist Fellowship. In 2018, he received the State of Alaska Governor’s Award for Outstanding Visual Artist and the Rasmuson Foundation’s Award for Distinguished Individual Artist. He has participated in several invitational exhibitions and his work has been featured in many publications.