Annie Pootoogook | Lovers’ Embrace. 2004
I keep coming back to Annie. An incomparable artist and storyteller. She is deeply missed but her genius, care and strength lives on through the worlds she drew.
Jutai Toonoo | Palliqniq. (detail) 2015
“A cutting-edge contemporary artist, sculptor, jeweler and graphic artist, Jutai Toonoo created works that rarely conformed to the traditional assumptions about the style and substance of Inuit art.
Toonoo belongs to the middle generation of Inuit artists who hover somewhere between the old and new worlds of the Arctic, negotiating an identity that is at once introspective and worldly. His work, often enlivened by the use of text, blends traditional and modern themes and provides commentary on social concerns such as isolation, drug and alcohol addiction, the search for identity and contemporary global issues.” Feheley Fine Arts
Annie Pootoogook | Making Love. 2003-2004
Annie Pootoogook depicted Inuit life as contemporary and complex, often tackling difficult subjects such as poverty, abuse and communal struggles. Pootoogook also depicted Inuit love and sex, a topic rarely discussed in conversations around Indigenous art. Pootoogook pulled no punches and her work opened up new conversations in the Indigenous art world and brought Inuit experiences to the foreground of contemporary art.
Ohotaq Mikkigak | Qamutaujaq (Snowmobile). 2006
I enjoy doing colourful drawings, of people, animals, birds and especially the landscape. I used to enjoy hunting on the land, so that’s what I draw. I’ve done a few drawings of shamans, although I’ve never seen one. They are stories, true stories, told by my grandmother. -Ohotaq Mikkigak
Ohotaq was born in 1936 and lived in Cape Dorset with his wife Qaunak, who is a carver and traditional throat-singer. Ohotaq began drawing in the early years of the print program in Cape Dorset, and his print, Eskimo Fox Trapper, was released in 1961. He became less involved with drawing as the community grew, working full time instead for various community agencies. After his retirement from his job as caretaker of the Peter Pitseolak School in Cape Dorset, Ohotaq resumed his interest in drawing. We were pleased to include three of his prints in the 40th anniversary collection released in 1999 and he was represent in every subsequent collection until his death in 2014. In the later years Ohotaq was a daily fixture at the table in the Kinngait Studios, working on drawings covering a wide range of themes and subjects, including an illustrated life history.
Ohotaq had his first solo exhibition of prints and drawings in 2010, and in 2012 a number of his large scale drawings were exhibited in a highly acclaimed show alongside Venerable Canadian artist Jack Bush at the Justina M Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto.
Kananginak Pootoogook | Untitled (Self-portrait of Kananginak drawing a Wolf). 2009
Kananginak Pootoogook was a creator in Cape Dorset and a leader of his community. Pootoogook’s work were displayed at this years Venice Biennale commemorating his life and work.
For more on Kananginak Pootoogook (1935-2010) and his work please read the lovely article written in Canadian Art Mag.