ϳԹ of Liberal Arts
dis/comfort in the North
Kat Reichert, CLA Public Information OfficeOctober 16, 2025cla-pio@alaska.edu
While developing her graduate work in the Arctic & Northern Studies (ACNS) program, artist and researcher Katie Ione Craney found her ideas pushing against the traditional structure of a written thesis. In true Northern fashion, she worked around it, turning challenge into opportunity. “'Dis/comfort' as a concept emerged from trying to define ‘colonial comfort,’ wording in my thesis statement,” Craney explains. From that spark, and a nudge from her advisory committee, came a project that looks and feels like the North itself: rigorous, hands-on, and alive with many voices.
Opening Monday, Oct. 20, "dis/comfort in the North" fills the UAF Art Gallery with work by 50 artists from 16 countries, gathered through both open call and invitation. It’s an exhibition that asks a deceptively simple question: How does dis/comfort materialize in Northern art? Comfort and discomfort, as the exhibition catalogue notes, continually shape each other and can only be understood through the lenses of worldview, status, and place. The framework Craney uses treats dis/comfort as both an analytical and aesthetic tool that helps us notice where perceptions of the North split and merge, and how those perceptions are formed by identity and relationship to land.
The decision to present her thesis visually came in part from Craney's experience as a working artist. Drawing on her experience installing and jurying shows, she issued an open call for submissions to "see how far the call might reach.” The response was staggering. Works poured in from around the world, including two-dimensional pieces, video, and sound—mediums that pushed Craney to expand her curatorial toolkit. Coordinating it all was “extensive, with spreadsheets, a lot of emails, and humble asks,” including personally inviting nine artists whose work deepened the exhibition’s central questions. “I had my own dis/comfort with a lot of these processes, which has overall elevated the meaning of dis/comfort as a project and exhibition theme.”
Each participating artist interpreted the concept of "dis/comfort" through their own lens of place, identity, and relationship to the North. Some artists explore the sensory and emotional edges of landscape, while others confront the political and historical forces that shape Northern experience. Together, their perspectives form a living map of the North.
Jérémie McGowan and Amund Sjølie Sveen's Real. Arctic., a traveling pop-up shop, flips tourist slogans to ask who defines an “authentic” North. Marte Lill Somby’s "Skrevet i Stein / Written in Stone," etches the words of Sámi women who are victims of violence into stone, making visible stories too often buried. And Eley’s "Afronauts," portraits of Black and Brown residents of Iceland, explore belonging, migration, and the ways climate and place shape identity.
Across the gallery, artists turn to ice through an “anti-spectacle” lens. Anna Berrino’s etching "The Grammar of Ice," Klara Maisch’s long-view painting practice at C'ulc'ena' Luu' (Gulkana Glacier), Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi’s photographs of Kachemak Bay as a sustaining home, for example, complicate any single story about frozen landscapes. Jenny Irene’s tender photograph "Nora’s hair cut (lock 1 of 6)" holds grief, kinship, and survival close.
Together, these works ask viewers to consider not just what the Arctic looks like, but how it feels and for whom.
What she hopes visitors leave with is a sense of curiosity and the willingness to look inward. For Craney, "dis/comfort in the North" isn’t about providing answers, but about widening the frame of how we see and feel this place. “I'm curious what pieces will stir dis/comfort, and more importantly, why… If visitors ask why they may feel dis/comfort towards the questions and artworks on display, then this exhibition is a success.”
Experience “dis/comfort in the North” in person at the UAF Art Gallery, open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. The exhibition opens Oct. 20 and runs through Oct. 31, with a closing reception on Thursday, Oct. 30, from 5–7 p.m. Browse the exhibition catalog in advance, then step into the gallery ready to look closely, listen deeply, and reflect on what the North means to you.
Help students turn research into real-world impact. Your gift to UAF’s Arctic & Northern Studies program supports transformative, hands-on learning experiences like this exhibition that connect classrooms to communities, and ideas to action.
