Montreal exhibit features Inuit women’s prints, drawings

Ningeokuluk Teevee’s 2008 etching and aquatint titled Augijuqtaq (Dress.) (IMAGE COURTESY OF DORSET FINE ARTS)

Montreal’s Canadian Guild of Crafts is hosting an exhibit this month featuring the works of three generations of Inuit women artists.

Starting Feb. 26, the Guild will host Inuit Women Artists, displaying the work of 17 artists including Jessie Oonark, Kenojuak Ashevak and Pitseolak Ashoona.

The works are part of the Guild’s permanent collection of prints, drawings and sculpture, while some come from Cape Dorset.

The exhibit looks at Inuit women’s entry into the modern arts with the introduction of printmaking to the Canadian Arctic in the 1950s.

While stone carving was traditionally a man’s activity, printmaking presented a new medium for women and could even be done at home.

“In Inuit art, the concentration on meaning and content is most noticeable in the graphic arts, which tend to be more descriptive and narrative than sculpture,” said Diane Perera, the Guild’s specialist in Indigenous art, in a Feb. 13 release.

“On another level, a number of works in this exhibition highlight a strong interest in pattern-making and symmetry linking these images to the older, traditional practices of sewing and the making of clothes.”

As part of the exhibition, on Feb. 28, the Guild will present a 3:00 p.m. lecture by master printmaker Paul Machnik, who has worked to revive printmaking in the Eastern Arctic.

The lecture will be followed by a screening of three films focused on Cape Dorset’s art history, featuring Ghost Noise (2010), Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak (1964) and Kinngait: Riding Light Into The World (2010.)

You can make a reservation to attend the event by sending an email to info@canadianguild.com.

The exhibit runs from Feb. 26 to Mar. 28.