Renowned annual print collection by Canadian Inuit to launch October 20

“Pebble Woman” an etching & aquatint by Padloo Samayualie featured in the 2018 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection. (Courtesy Dorset Fine Arts)
The famed annual print collection from the Inuit community of Cape Dorset in Arctic Canada goes on sale Saturday and features both established artists and new names.

There are 34 images in this year’s collection with 50 editions of each.

Well-known artists like Shuvinai Ashoona, Ningiukulu Teevee and Qavavau Manumie are featured, along with works of mid-career artists like Padloo Samayualie and emerging artists like Quvianaqtuk Pudlat.

“There’s new things but there’s still continuity there,” Mark London, director of the Galerie Elca London in Montreal, told Eye on the Arctic in a phone interview.

“It makes you wonder, not only how the talent seems to renew itself from generation to generation, but also how much talent has been in hiding.”

Feature Interview
For a look back on the Dorset print collection and more on some of the artists featured in its 59th edition, listen to Eye on the Arctic‘s conversation with gallery owner Mark London:

From local program to worldwide renown

The release of the Cape Dorset print collection has been an annual art event in Canada for decades.

This year marks its 59th edition.

The collection’s roots go back to the 1950s when Canadian artist James Houston moved to Cape Dorset, an island community off the southwest coast of Baffin Island in what is now Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut. (At the time it was part of Canada’s Northwest Territories.)

There, Houston taught local Inuit how to draw and make prints of Arctic nature and Inuit life.

“Lively Caribou,” a stonecut by Axangayuk Shaa from the 2018 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection. It’s Shaa’s first image in the catalogue since 1961 when his work “Wounded Caribou” was featured. (Courtesy Dorset Fine Arts)

Starting in 1959, the prints produced in Cape Dorset were released in an annual collection. They became a hit in the art world and a favourite of collectors. Several artists who came through the program went on to build national and international reputations.

The best known was Kenojuak Ashevak. Although she died in 2013, she  remains a Canadian superstar for her imagery of  Arctic nature and wildlife, particularly birds. Her work has been replicated on everything from stamps to stained-glass windows to Canadian currency.

Cape Dorset, a community of around 1400,  is known as the unofficial capital of Arctic art in Canada.

The new Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop officially opened this September to house the print program as well as host lectures, workshops and artist training.

Video Section

To view Eye on the Arctic’s in-studio interviews with Inuit artists from Cape Dorset and other regions of Canada, visit our special video section:

The art and artists of Canada’s Arctic

Artist Jolly Atagooyuk working in studio in Pangnirtung, a community in Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut. (Eye on the Arctic)

Evolving themes

Prints evoking nature or traditional Inuit life remain the most popular images in the collection. But this year’s collection also contains contemporary themes.

“Nature and animals are usually the backbone of the collection,” London said. “But I’m looking at a lovely image by Padloo Samayualie called “Kinngait Calling” where it’s a lovely etching and aquatint of a telephone pole and the electrical and phone wiring criss-crossing. Within the context of the collection you know that it’s an Inuit image, but if you saw it on a wall somewhere divorced from its contemporaries it could be from anywhere.

“It’s just a beautiful image on its own.”

The collection’s worldwide, coordinated opening takes place on Saturday, October 20 at designated galleries in the Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.

The complete list is on the Dorset Fine Arts website.

Dorset Fine Arts is the marketing arm of Cape Dorset’s West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. The co-operative represents many of the communities artists.

The compete 2018 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection catalogue is available here.

Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca

Related stories from around the North:

Canada:  Canadian province of Ontario contributes $96,000 towards update of Inuit art trademark, Eye on the Arctic

Finland:  London gallery offers multimedia Sámi art, Yle News

Greenland: Canadian artist explores Greenland’s past, Eye on the Arctic

Russia: Karelian art on show in Russia, Yle News

Sweden:  Swedish Sámi visual artist shaping climate changes, Radio Sweden

United States: National recognition for 2 Alaska artists, Alaska Public Media

 

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

Eilís Quinn is an award-winning journalist and manages Radio Canada International’s Eye on the Arctic news cooperation project. Eilís has reported from the Arctic regions of all eight circumpolar countries and has produced numerous documentary and multimedia series about climate change and the issues facing Indigenous peoples in the North.

Her investigative report "Death in the Arctic: A community grieves, a father fights for change," about the murder of Robert Adams, a 19-year-old Inuk man from Arctic Quebec, received the silver medal for “Best Investigative Article or Series” at the 2019 Canadian Online Publishing Awards. The project also received an honourable mention for excellence in reporting on trauma at the 2019 Dart Awards in New York City.

Her report “The Arctic Railway: Building a future or destroying a culture?” on the impact a multi-billion euro infrastructure project would have on Indigenous communities in Arctic Europe was a finalist at the 2019 Canadian Association of Journalists award in the online investigative category.

Her multimedia project on the health challenges in the Canadian Arctic, "Bridging the Divide," was a finalist at the 2012 Webby Awards.

Her work on climate change in the Arctic has also been featured on the TV science program Découverte, as well as Le Téléjournal, the French-Language CBC’s flagship news cast.

Eilís has worked for media organizations in Canada and the United States and as a TV host for the Discovery/BBC Worldwide series "Best in China."

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