UMINGMAK, 2012, Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 in.

Feheley Fine Arts is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Tanya Tagaq at their Toronto gallery.  This is the first such exhibition for this well-known Inuit singer.  We are also pleased to announce a special performance by Tanya Tagaq in the gallery, Saturday June 16 at 4pm.

Tanya Tagaq was born and raised in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut in Canada’s high Arctic.  Although she was surrounded by both Inuit and western cultures growing up, it was not until her teenage years that she began experimenting with Inuit throat singing, developing her signature solo style. Her first professional gig at a festival in Inuvik won the admiration of friends of Bjork, eventually leading to an appearance on the Icelandic artist’s 2004 CD, Medulla and a chance to accompany her on tour.

A graduate of the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, Tagaq has pursued her visual arts career when time allows.  This group of 10 dramatic paintings focuses on wildlife and transforming subjects depicted in highly coloured and imagined landscapes.

Tanya has released two critically-acclaimed albums, Sinaa (2005) and Auk/Blood (2008), both of which were nominated for Juno Awards. Both albums won awards at the 2005 and 2008 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. In 2005, the world-renowned Kronos Quartet invited her to participate in a monumental collaborative project Nunavut, which was performed across North America and Europe including a performance at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York.

Recently venturing into film, Tanya contributed to the The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006) soundtrack and acted as musician/narrator for the award-winning National Film Board documentary, This Land (2009). She joined forces with musician Jesse Zubot and filmmakers Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael for the video.

Tungijuq, which premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and 2010 Sundance Film Festival and also won “Best Short Drama” at the 2009 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Awards, was a collaboration with Inuit filmmaker, Zacharias Kunuk.

October 2011, saw the release of a live album, Anuraaqtu; (Inuktitut for Wind). The album features Tanya with Jean Martin and Jesse Zubot in performance at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. Her most recent performance was at the Moers Jazz Festival in Germany (2012).