Phillip is an Oregon resident of Alaskan Native and French Canadian descent. One of today’s leading contemporary Native artists, Phillip honors his culture through his contemporary expression of traditional Yup’ik masks.

Phillip, a Harvard graduate, left his career in education and began work as a full-time artist in 2001, when he established his art business featuring authentic contemporary Yup’ik art. Phillip, also known to the Yup’ik people as Aarnaquq (“the dangerous one”) is a member of the Yupiit Nation in Southwestern Alaska.  He is known for his mixed-media sculptures, which are contemporary renditions of ancient Yup’ik masks. His work has been shown at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Institute of American Indian Arts, Naples Museum of Art, Philbrook Museum of Art, Anchorage Museum of Art, Weisman Art Museum, Tucson Art Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, Bishop Museum, Hallie Ford Museum, Washington State History, Heard Museum, and the Pataka Museum of Art in New Zealand.  In 2006, Phillip was honored with the prestigious SWAIA Artists Choice award for one of his sculptures at the Sante Fe Indian Art Market.  He has work on permanent display in the Arctic Room at the Portland Art Museum (Oregon) and had two large pieces on tour with the Changing Hands 2: Art Without Reservation national exhibit.

Phillip received early exposure to music from both his Yup’ik and French Canadian families. As a child in Alaska, he began hearing and learning the traditional Alaskan Native Yup’ik songs and sounds, which have become the primary influence for the music he plays on his Native American flutes and drums.  Although flutes are not traditional in his Yup’ik culture, Phillip began developing a love for the flute in the late 1990’s. In 1997, he began making Native wooden flutes. He has since mastered the art of making his own style of concert-quality Native American flutes in hardwoods and low-fired clays, specializing in large bass flutes.  He writes his own songs, as well as playing traditional songs, and has been performing for six years. He holds membership in The International Native American Flute Association.

Phillip has been featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Oregon Art Beat” for both his art and music. Since its release, Arctic Voices has been featured on a number of syndicated national and international radio broadcasts.

More information on Phillip’s music can be found at his MySpace music website, http://www.myspace.com/phillipcharette. Information on his art can be found at http://www.yupikmask.com, as can information regarding performances and lectures.