Inuit art leads summer line-up at Toronto gallery

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

Many Nunavut artists are enjoying a high-profile summer down South this year.

Between June and August, Toronto’s Feheley Fine Arts will host four back-to-back art shows featuring artists from Pangnirtung, Cape Dorset, Baker Lake and many other communities, including such names as Kananginak Pootoogook, Pudlo Pudlat and Mikisiti Saila.

Stencils, lino cuts and etchings from the 2003 Pangnirtung collection opened June 20, and will be followed by The Inuit Icon, opening June 21.

The Inuit Icon features 80 pieces, including sculptures and graphics from private collections. It includes work of varied scale, age and regional origin and even boasts such well-known pieces as Kenojuak Ashevak’s Enchanted Owl.

It’s the gallery’s second exhibition of this kind, presenting Inuit treasures that have achieved iconic status and are instantly recognizable for their widespread popularity. Many of the pieces are on loan from Canadian philanthropists Rose and Noah Torno.

A third exhibit entitled Cold Current: Water Imagery in Inuit Art, featuring sculptures, prints, drawings and wall-hangings, opens July 12. The exhibit, showcasing such images as kayaks, walruses, seals and narwhal, reflects the close relationship between Inuit and water.

Exploring the Dorset returns in August to present the second half of a retrospective of Cape Dorset printmaking from the past four decades.

Currently on display in Iqaluit are prints from Pangnirtung artists Andrew Qappik, Lipa Pitsiulak, Towkie Qarpik, Abigail Ootoova and Annie Kilabuk, part of the Pangnirtung Print Shop’s 2003 offering.

Pangnirtung artists are among some of the most celebrated in Nunavut and have grown in visibility since the creation of the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts in 1991.

Selections from the 2003 Pangnirtung print collection can be seen at the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit museum until July 31.