Inuit Art Wins at the GOG Awards
On December 3, Galeries Ontario Galleries (GOG) announced the winners of the 2024 GOG Awards. Multidisciplinary artist Augatnaaq Eccles, from Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), NU, won the First Exhibition in a Public Gallery award for her exhibition Seasons of the Sun (2023), which she curated at Carleton University Art Gallery in Ottawa, ON. Seasons of the Sun examined and traced seasons in the Arctic as Eccles and her friends and family experienced them. The partnership between Onsite Gallery and the Inuit Art Foundation on the mural series Up Front was one of three winners in the Key Partnership category. Up Front began in 2022 and is a series of digital murals by Inuit artists displayed on the facade of Onsite Gallery in Toronto, ON. Currently, work by Maureen Gruben is up, and work by Kalaaleq and Danish artist Coco Lynge will be featured starting January 2025.
Ulivia Uviluk Collaborates with MMFA on Exhibition at Museo del Oro in Bogotá
Multidisciplinary artist Ulivia Uviluk (Olivia Lya Thomassie) collaborated with curator Jacques Des Rocher and art historian Louis Gagnon to create the exhibition Anurijuq, The Wind Blows at Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia. The exhibition, which is presented by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, features works by contemporary Inuit artists from the Arctic. It includes 36 sculptures and highlights topics of Inuit territory, arctic fauna, and the customs and beliefs of Inuit. Uviluk’s practice includes filmmaking, beading and writing. Earlier this year she participated in the Artist-in-Residence program with Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš in Karasjok, Norway. Anurijuq, The Wind Blows is on view until May 19, 2025.
Britta Marakatt-Labba is Named the 2025 Göteborg Film Festival Artist
Sámi textile artist, painter and graphic artist Britta Marakatt-Labba has been announced as the 2025 Göteborg Film Festival artist. This year’s theme is “Disobedience,” specifically the power of civil resistance. Festival Artistic Director Pia Lundberg says Marakatt-Labba was an inspiration for the theme. “She has lived and breathed resistance and disobedience in a way few others have,” she says. Marakatt-Labba is known for her fierce advocacy for Sámi rights and for imbuing her art with political commentary. Her poster for the festival was unveiled on December 2. The Göteborg Film Festival is the largest public film festival in the Nordic region and was founded in 1979. It attracts viewers both in person and online. Lasting 11 days, the festival features film screenings, workshops, concerts and more. It runs from January 24 to February 2, 2025.
First Film Institute to Launch in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) by 2026
On November 20, the Parliament of Greenland passed a law to create the first film institute, Kalaallit Nunaanni Filminstitutti, in Kalaallit Nunaat. Filmmaking has been active in the region: in the past two years, Kalaallit Nunaat has nominated two films to the Nordic Council Film Prize: documentary Twice Colonized (2023) directed by Lin Alluna, and The Edge of Shadows (2022) directed by Malik Kleist. The institute will focus on promoting local feature films, short films, documentaries and film culture in general. The film institute will begin operations by January 1, 2026.