Annie Pootoogook

Annie Pootoogook was born in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut in 1969. Her artistic roots run deep as her parents, Eegyvudluk Pootoogook and Napachie Pootoogook were both artists, as well as her grandmother Pitseolak Ashoona, a well-known graphic artist. Once Annie embarked on her career as an artist, it became clear how influential Pitseolak and Napachie’s works were on her. Not only did she continuously reference her mother and grandmother in her work, she carried on their tradition of documenting daily life in the Arctic. Jimmy Manning recalls that Annie “always had a great interest in drawing,” and that the Co-op provided her with the tools to do so [1]. Pootoogook’s art career did not take off until her early thirties, with her first solo exhibition, “Moving Forward: Works on Paper by Annie Pootoogook” at Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto.

Pootoogook’s rise to prominence in the Canadian and International Contemporary art scene was swift. She went from a relatively unknown Canadian artist (except within her community) in the early 2000s to having a solo exhibition at the Power Plant in Toronto and winning the Sobey Art Award in 2006, launching her and her work into the art-going publics consciousness. As Robert Kardosh describes, “Such a spectacular string of successes would be an impressive feat for any young or mid-career artist. For Pootoogook, however, her personal accomplishments also reflect a dramatic breakthrough for Inuit artists generally, this being the first time that the Canadian and international establishments have embraced an Inuit artist as an important contemporary artist tout court [2].” Her position as a contemporary artist was further fixed with her inclusion in Document 12 in Kassel, Germany.

Her earlier drawings were insights into her daily life that were clever, humorous and tender. In Ritz Crackers (2004) she depicts an open box of crackers, with three crackers (one half eaten) and some crumbs in the foreground, a mug with a partially visible floral pattern, and a spoon cradling a teabag. A seemingly simple image might evoke memories of similar snack times in homes across Canada. However, it can also be unpacked to consider greater socio-economic factors. In particular, the cost of shipping food to the north; how much more name brand boxes of crackers may cost and in-turn how much more precious this particular snack may be. As her career began to take off, her artistic trajectory shifted to reveal more intimate and explicitly political scenes that invite the viewer into all aspects of northern life. Curator Candace Hopkins described Annie’s work as “touch[ing] upon the devastation that alcoholism and suicide have wrought – both of which occur in epic proportions in the north, where communities are still healing from the open wounds of colonialism and the radical severing of lives once lived in rhythm with the land [3].” In a tribute to Annie Pootoogook, Inuit art historian Heather Igloliorte acknowledged the robust dialogue around Annie’s scenes of domestic violence and alcohol abuse, but for Igloliorte the real breakthrough in Annie’s work was the detailed depiction of the quotidian, “images [that] de-exoticized the Arctic” [4]. Annie’s work opened up the legacy of Inuit art; breaking with the tradition of drawing and printmaking in Cape Dorset, that was grounded in the natural and fantastical world to confidently depict the humorous, heartfelt, personal, and disturbing too. As Manning describes, “She drew about life around her and these subjects were simply part of that [5].”

----------

Accomplishments