Biography
Artist Biography
Ilegvak is Peter Williams Yup’ik name and preferred name. Ilegvak is a culture bearer, artist, designer, filmmaker, writer, activist and educator originally from his family’s village of Akiaq, now based in Sheet'ká. His hand-sewn works repurpose skin from self-harvested traditional foods, bridging worlds of Indigenous art and subsistence. The deeply holistic nature of his Alaska Native culture not only informs his art but is why he creates it.
Ilegvak has completed artist residencies at Santa Fe Art Institute and Institute of American Indian Arts, and has guest lectured and/or taught skin sewing at Yale University, Stanford University, UCLA, Portland Art Museum, and Alaska State Museum, among others. His art has been shown at museums and galleries across North America.
His presentations at New York Fashion Week and Fashion Week Brooklyn in 2015 and 2016 led to profiles in The Guardian and The New York Times. Ilegvak produced the documentary Harvest: Quyurciq, which received a Native Peoples Action project grant to create an accompanying curriculum for the film.
From 2018-2020 he became a Cultural Capital Fellow and Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellow. In 2021 he received an NDN Collective Radical Imagination Grant and, in 2022, a Forge Project Fellowship, Rasmuson Individual Artist Award Fellowship and United States Artists Fellowship. He has contributed to First Alaskans Magazine, with articles covering various topics, including, Native rights, environmental justice and dismantling patriarchy and colonialism. His professional and personal work is increasingly focused on climate change and its disproportionate effects on Indigenous peoples.
Inspired by Connection
Sea otter fur is historically prized as one of the rarest furs in the world. In 1968, Neiman-Marcus purchased four pelts at $2,300 apiece. After a history of foreign exploitation, Alaska Native tribal groups now have exclusive rights to hunt for and work with the fur. Because of traditional Native hunting practices and conservation efforts, Alaska sea otter is no longer listed as an endangered species. The luxuriously warm, soft and durable fur contains up to one million hairs per square inch, making it the densest in the World. Shaman Furs is the first label to bring seal and sea otter fur back into American high fashion since the 1970's. An exemption in the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 grants Alaska Native tribal groups exclusive rights to hunt and work with the fur. In Southeast Alaska, where Shaman Furs harvests for food and fur, the animals are not listed as an endangered species. Ranging in shade from white to gold with energetic patterns and a sleek texture, seal fur is an ideal material for one-of-a-kind looks. Shaman Furs does not ship outside the United States due to regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and CITES.
“Relationships and how we interact with the World paint the landscape of inner peace
A horizon produces the illusion that the sea and sky are separate
My hand functions like your hand, my heart beats the same way your heart beats
Within you dwells truth and beauty”
