Duane Pasco

Over the past forty years, Duane Pasco has become one of the most influential artists working in the genre of Northwest Coast art. His work has become an influential standard for consistency in quality and innovation, and his commitment to the revival and continuation of the traditional forms has been proven repeatedly through his impact as an artist and teacher. In 1969 and 1970 he taught at the Gitanmaax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art, British Columbia. He has also taught at the University of Washington and countless private classes.

Duane’s professional career began in 1966 with representation by a major fine art gallery in Seattle. This was one of the first fine art shows of Northwest Coast art. Duane’s work became recognized both as fine sculpture and as exceptional two-dimensional graphic design.

He has since continued to produce pieces of the highest caliber. Stonington Gallery features Duane’s exquisite works throughout the year and also facilitates commissions of specific pieces.

Duane is pushing his art to its limits, right to the outside edge. His work has old themes, but is wrought with unique, new ideas. He possesses a whimsical humor that surfaces repeatedly in his work, balanced with an innate sense of respect for an ancient art form whose masters were innovators. With his artwork, Pasco continues in these traditions. He is fluent in all styles of Northwest Coast art and has a particular passion for the historical role of canoes, puppets, songs, language and totem poles.  Pasco believes an understanding of native language is an essential part of understanding native culture and its art. He also believes canoes hold the acquired knowledge of the Pacific Northwest Coast, and that understanding them, both form and function, leads to a deeper understanding of coastal culture and art.

Works by Pasco are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA; University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, the Gustav Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian; the City of Seattle; Swedish Hospital Medical Center, Seattle, WA; the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington; the University of Tokyo; Sitka National Park, Sitka, AK; Anne & John Hauberg; the Makah People’s Museum, Neah Bay, WA; Alaska State Museum, Juneau, AK; Weyerhauser Corporation, Seattle, WA; Paccar Corporation, Bellevue, WA; City of Bergen, Norway; Singapore Airlines, Malaysia; Bank of California, Seattle, WA; Eastman Kodak Corporation, Bellevue, WA; Safeco Corporation, Seattle, WA; as well as in many private collections.

Three of Duane Pasco’s totem poles grace Seattle’s Pioneer Square Occidental Park, two blocks north of the Stonington Gallery.  Pasco is of Irish and English descent and enjoys singing ballads and Chinook love songs on the accordion.