Contemporary Drawing in Kinngait, 1995–2015 Drawing holds a long history at the Kinngait Studios. For many artists it served as their introduction to artmaking, as graphite pencil and paper were among the first media available to in the late 1950s and early 1960s. While drawings were purchased by the co-op, they were seldom marketed for sale and prints dominated the … Read More
Rarities: Coveted Cape Dorset Prints
Where were you in 1962 when Parr’s compelling stonecut Man and Whale was released in the Annual Cape Dorset Print Collection? Would anyone then have predicted that the young co-operative art studio in a small Arctic hamlet would go on to become the longest continuously-running print studio in Canada? Today, prints from the annual collections sit in private and public … Read More
The Etching and Aquatint Print
Paul Machnik and his world-renowned Montreal-based print atelier, Studio PM, began collaborating with the Kinngait Studios artists more than twenty-five years ago. The introduction of the etching and aquatint technique was game changing, rejuvenating the monochromatic etching medium which artists had dabbled with in the early 1960s and again in the 1970s. The difference between the early etchings and Machnik’s … Read More
Artist of the ‘90s: Sheojuk Etidlooie
“I started out drawing by accident at the Church Christmas games. That’s when I learned that I could draw, and ever since then I have gained confidence. I have to think about a drawing for a while before I start to make it. My drawings are from me, they are my own but it is not easy to make them. … Read More
Breaking Ground: New Oil Stick Drawings from Cape Dorset
This exhibition “breaks ground” in a number of ways. First, the medium of oil stick is still a very recent innovation for Inuit artists. It was introduced in Cape Dorset in the late 1990s by Montreal-based artist Ludmilla (Mewa) Armata, who coaxed some remarkable work from senior artists such as Mayureak Ashoona and Sheojuk Etidlooie. The materials remained in the … Read More
Transformed: The Last Works of Sheojuk Etidlooie
(Digitized catalogue below) “Aanaan [My mother], your wisdom, strength and guidance have and always will guide us through life. We all miss you. Your loving son,” – Pauloosie Suvega, Iqaluit, 1999 “We didn’t realize how well-known my mother was in the south. She rarely spoke about her art. We thought she just wanted to be able to provide for her … Read More
Sheojuk Etidlooie: Original Drawings
(Digitized catalogue below) Our perception of an artist is that technique can be learned but talent is latent, lying dormant until stirred by opportunity. Sheojuk’s opportunity came late in life. She did not begin to draw until she was in her mid-60’s, as the result of a chance occurrence. Barely six months later, the first of her distinctive images appeared … Read More