Although museums and galleries around the world have had to close to the public, you can still visit them online—and we can help! Check out these five virtual exhibitions of Inuit artists you know and love as well as some exciting new faces from the comfort of your couch.
Installation view of Qautamaat | Every day / everyday (2019) Courtesy Art Gallery of Guelph
Qautamaat | Every day / everyday Art Gallery of Guelph
This exhibition, curated by Taqralik Partridge, brings together Inuit artists living across Inuit Nunangat and major urban centres in the South through photography circulated on social media. Documenting places and phenomena of daily life, the artists offer a visual map and memory of the lived environment. See the exhibit in photographs here.
Installation view of Among All These Tundras, Onsite Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto (2019) Photo Yuula Benivolski
ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ / Among All These Tundras Onsite Gallery
Featuring contemporary art by Indigenous artists from across the circumpolar world, Among All These Tundras shows off pieces from celebrated Inuit artists Couzyn van Heuvelen, Barry Pottle and Kablusiak alongside their peers from Greenland, Alaska, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Originally produced and circulated by the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University, this exhibition, curated by Dr. Heather Igloliorte, Amy Dickson and Charissa von Harringa, travelled to the Onsite Gallery at the Ontario College of Art and Design and is currently on view at the Campbell River Art Gallery. Onsite offers a virtual tour of the exhibition here.
Harry Egotak Two Men Hunting a Bear (1962) Sealskin stencil on paper 30 x 40 cm Courtesy Winnipeg Art Gallery
Holman: Forty Years of Graphic ArtWinnipeg Art Gallery
Based on the 2001 exhibition of the same name, this Virtual Museum of Canada project explores the unique artistic history of the community of Ulukhaktok, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, through artist video interviews, archival photographs and a trove of graphic works created in the Holman studio during its first forty years. Curated by Darlene Coward Wight, curator of Inuit Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, this site brings together works by Alec Aliknak Banksland, Helen Kalvak, Elsie Klengenberg and many more.
Laisa Audlaluk-Watsko Untitled (2019) Digital photograph Courtesy the artist
Looking Down From UpGallery 44
This online project, the third chapter of Gallery 44’s online exhibition A maze of collapsing lines, was created in partnership with Inuit Art Quarterly and interrogates the disparity in Internet access between urban and remote communities, and more specifically, how northern communities are disproportionately affected by low broadband and sparse infrastructure. Looking Down From Up showcases the work of photographers Mary Gordon, Laisa Audlaluk-Watsko, Eldred Allen and Robert Kautuk.
Cornelius (Kooneeloosee) Nutarak Untitled (Seal Hunting) (1964) Graphite on paper Courtesy Agnes Etherington Art Centre Image Canadian Museum of History
Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964Agnes Etherington Art Centre
A collection of drawings gathered over a three month period in early 1964 by Terry Ryan, an artist and arts advisor working in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, this exhibition curated by Norman Vorano examines a time of profound social change in Canada’s Arctic from the viewpoint of the men and women living in the North Baffin communities of Kanngiqtugaapik (Clyde River), Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) and Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay). Find original drawings by Mary Tassugat, Joshua Koomangapik and many others as well as accompanying video clips here.
Pudlo Pudlat Untitled (Fantasy Airplane) (n.d.) Felt-tip pen on paper 51 x 66 cm Courtesy McMichael Canadian Art Collection reproduced with permission Dorset Fine Arts
Bonus!
Iningat IlagiitMcMichael Art Gallery
Curate your own exhibition of Inuit art on Iningat Ilagiit, a collaboration between the McMichael Art Gallery and the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative that lets you select from among 4000+ drawings created by artists from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU. Build a collection of your favourites and share your own virtual exhibition with friends and family!
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