Winnipeg Art Gallery displays new Arctic-themed exhibition

A series of soapstone carvings by Nunavut artists, now on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, documents Nunavut buildings from the 20th century. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LATERAL OFFICE)

Detail of proposal with Arctic balconies, Iqaluit. (IMAGE COURTESY OF SERGIO PIRRONE)

If you’re visiting Winnipeg between now and early May, you will want to take a look at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Earlier this month an exhibit, Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15, opened. That exhibit, which will remain on display until May 3, offers visitors a look at the relationship between architecture, land, climate, and culture in the Arctic.

And it was first presented as Canada’s official exhibition at the 2014 Venice Biennale in Architecture,

Intended to coincide with Nunavut’s 15th anniversary as a territory, Arctic Adaptations surveys a century of Arctic architecture and looks at the future of architecture in Nunavut.

The exhibit, led by Lateral Office architectural firm, features interactive architecture models, photography, and topographical maps of 25 Nunavut communities.

It also includes specially commissioned work by carvers who created scale models of some of the best-known buildings in the territory, including Nakasuk Elementary School, the original St. Jude’s Cathedral, the Iqaluit airport and a typical home,

Following the display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Arctic Adaptations will tour nationally, the gallery said in a news release.

On March 26 at 7 p.m., also at the gallery, you can catch an event called, “The Walrus Talks Arctic,” presented in conjunction with the Walrus magazine.

Panelists, who will discuss a wide range of issues, include artist Ruben Komangapik, performer Tanya Tagaq and environmental and human rights advocate Sheila Watt-Cloutier and Michael Maltzan, architect of the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s new Inuit Art Centre.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery, which bills itself as “the home of the largest Inuit art collection in the universe,” plans to build a new $45-million Inuit art and learning centre.

The centre will be located at the south end of the gallery’s triangular property, bordered by Memorial Blvd., St. Mary Ave. and Colony St. in downtown Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery is home to a collection of more than 26,000 works of art, which includes many works of Inuit art which the museum has bought or received as donations.

In 2006,  H.G. Jones, an American historian from North Carolina, who collected a total of 140 works by Pangnirtung artist Andrew Qappik over 31 years, gave his collection to the gallery.