Denise attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM in the late 1970s. Denise along with her late husband, Samuel Wallace produced jewelry that was inspired by her Alaskan Native heritage. The couple had a studio/gallery in Santa Fe, NM for over 20 years and moved to the island of Hawaii in 1999.
Her work has been featured in the major traveling exhibition, Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise and Samuel Wallace organized by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in Anchorage, Alaska; Craft in America 3, a PBS series, nationally touring exhibition and publication; Gifts of the Spirit: Works by Nineteenth Century and Contemporary Native American Artists, organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts and more. Wallace’s work is also housed in the permanent collections of the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in Anchorage, Alaska; the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, New York and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, California.