Cape Dorset’s coveted prints draw crowds in Toronto, New York

Cape Dorset artist Papiara Tukiki’s print, titled Polar Bear At Camp, was on of two prints from this year’s collection that was donated to the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. (IMAGE COURTESY OF KINNGAIT STUDIOS)

Salt & Pepper, by up and coming Cape Dorset artist Nicotye Samayualie, is a departure from the traditional scenes and wildlife depicted in many of the collection’s prints. (IMAGE COURTESY OF KINNGAIT STUDIOS)

Cape Dorset artists Saimaiyu Akesuk, far left, and Papiara Tukiki, second from right, answer questions about the 2015 print collection at Toronto’s Feheley Fine Arts Oct. 16, with the help of gallery owner Pat Feheley, far right, and interpreter Paigelee Alorut, second from left. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Arctic Lice, by Cee Pootoogook. Feheley Fine Arts owner Pat Feheley said the quality of the collections’ prints continues to improve each year, thanks to Kinngait Studio’s talented printmakers. (IMAGE COURTESY OF KINNGAIT STUDIOS)

TORONTO — Like most years, Pat Feheley has a list of interested buyers lined up well before the annual Cape Dorset print collection is released.

And it was no different this year at her Toronto gallery, Feheley Fine Arts, where Inuit art lovers perused the prints Oct. 16, the day before the 56th annual collection went on sale.

If visitors were lucky, they had a chance to meet some of the talent behind this year’s prints, who travelled from Cape Dorset to see their work on display for the first time at a gallery outside the Nunavut community.

“It’s amazing,” said Saimaiyu Akesuk, 29, the print collection’s youngest contributor this year, after speaking to a group at the Toronto gallery.

“I knew [Cape Dorset] prints were being sold, but I had no idea it was this popular.”

Hanging behind her, Akesuk’s piece Courting Birds, the collection’s largest print, features two raven-like birds, side by side.

The animals are filled in with Akesuk’s distinct colouring; patches of crayon strokes moving in different directions.

While the print suggests the birds are courting, Akesuk said the birds actually represent her and a good friend, Makittu.

“We grew up together,” Akesuk said. “It’s that look we give each other when we want to say something, but it comes out as a laugh instead.”

As is evident in many of this year’s prints, Akesuk looks to her natural surroundings for inspiration, depicting birds, bears and even bugs in her work.

Akesuk, who teaches at Cape Dorset’s Sam Pudlat elementary school when she’s not in the studio, said she grew up hating art, although she was surrounded by artistic relatives.

“I didn’t understand the concept,” she said. “But once I started doing it, I started to understand, and now I love it.”

Seated next to Akesuk is artist Papiara Tukiki, who has been drawing since before Akesuk was born. She’s the eldest contributor to this year’s collection.

She’s not quite sure how old she is — she thinks she was born in 1942 — but her work reflects a time before Inuit settled into communities.

“When I draw, I’m thinking of my ancestors and how they lived back then,” Tukiki said through an interpreter.

Tukiki recalled a time when prints created at Kinngait Studios were selling for $0.50 to $1.00 a piece; compare that now to one of her prints in this collection, “Polar Bear At Camp,” priced at $1,400.

Tukiki sometimes draws on fantasy and imagination to create her work — like the comical print of a caribou smoking a pipe — but the end goal is more practical.

Tukiki said she always encourages her grandchildren and other youth in Cape Dorset to draw as a means of income.

“It’s a way to support yourself,” she said. “There’s not much work in Cape Dorset.”

The artists may have been surprised by the number of fans they have in Toronto, but this was only a warm-up to their trip to New York City over the weekend.

Dorset Fine Arts, the marketing division of Cape Dorset’s West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, flew both Akesuk and Tukiki to the Big Apple to take part in a panel discussion on Inuit art at the Brooklyn museum.

As part of a new partnership, Dorset Fine Arts also gifted the museum with two Cape Dorset prints, something the gallery plans to do annually to promote Kinngait’s art to a wider audience.

“This is going to motivate me,” Akesuk said, of all the attention. “Now that I know people are interested in my art, I’ll be working a lot more on it.”

You can see the complete 2015 collection here, including a list of galleries where prints are available.

Courting Birds, by Saimaiyu Akesuk, depicts the artist and her good friend. “It’s that look we give each other when we want to say something, but it comes out as a laugh instead,” Akesuk explained. (IMAGE COURTESY OF KINNGAIT STUDIOS)