Sonya Kelliher-Combs was born in Bethel, Alaska and raised in Nome, Alaska. She is of Iñupiaq, Athabascan, German and Irish decent. Her family traces its roots to both the northern slope and interior of Alaska. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1992 from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and her Master of Fine Arts in 1998 from Arizona State University, Tempe. She began exhibiting her artwork in the early 1990s. Throughout her career, S. Kelliher-Combs has created mixed media paintings and sculptures that examine identity, family and cultural history within an Alaskan context. Her artworks are primarily inspired by the relationships between people and their environments and utilise natural and synthetic materials, including hides, hair and bones. Her work is often abstract and minimalist but filled with deeply personal and meaningful objects that she has collected.

In her art practice, S. Kelliher-Combs draws upon centuries-old Iñupiaq artisan traditions by utilising geometric designs and organic materials such as walrus gut. In the past, Iñupiaq used sea mammal skins to construct parkas and often embellished them with tufts of hair or geometric patterns that often referred to animals within their environment. Both the use of skin as material and skin as metaphor is a reoccurring theme in S. Kelliher-Combs’ work. The animal membranes, particularly the walrus gut creates a parchment-like material. The delicate nature of the unique ‘canvas’ allows for natural or gallery light to shine through it. In works such as Red Reindeer Brand (2009), S. Kelliher-Combs applies layers of polymer to create a synthetic stretched skin surface and adds bits of reindeer fur, cotton and grommets. These embedded materials in the synthetic skin serve as a metaphor for secrets. For example in Idiot Strings (2005–2007), S. Kelliher-Combs addresses communal secrets, trauma and loss. The title references the strings used to tie together pairs of mittens. The work consists of twenty-five waxed wool strings attached to pairs of walrus gut pouches that hang above a platform. The lightness of the material allows for the piece to sway delicately and cast eerie shadows onto the platform and the walls that surround it. The artwork is intended to commemorate the suicides of family members and others in her community. As the installation has trave.led, it has become a meditation on collective loss, not only of those within her own community. Additionally, S. Kelliher-Combs has also crafted smaller scale sculptural pieces such as Small Secrets (2009). Her innovative use of materials and stark compositions make her work both striking and haunting.

S. Kelliher-Combs has exhibited both nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. She is also the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Diversity and Dialogue (2007). Her works are part of the permanent collections of institutions such as the National Museum of the American Indian, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the British Museum, London.