This is my Christmas gift for all who come to visit Ultima Thule in this Yule Season. And, also to celebrate the magical number of 500 000 views recently reached.
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The Canada House at Trafalgar Square, London, was hosting a small exhibition of Inuit Art from Nunavut, mostly from the Cap Dorset Fine Arts studio in Baffin Island.
Names like Ningeokuluk Teevee, Quavavau Manumie, Shuvinai Ashoona, Tim Pitsiulak were already familiar to me; at Ultima Thule I published a post some time ago about their art, among others. But Lavinia van Heuvelen was a new name I had never heard, and I loved her work.
Nunavut is a rather unique place: it is one of the most remote and sparsely populated territories in the world, with a population of just 32 000 spread out over an area the size of Western Europe, living in a harsh land under extreme weather, and yet it is one of Canada’s creative regions.
In Nunavut there are over 4 000 practicing artists - the arts are promoted alongside other economic activities like mining, hunting or tourism.
Some of the items exhibited:
The small Ivory Sedna Container is a precious work by Lavinia van Heuvelen, from Iqaluit (2013).
Jamasie Pitseolak, from the Cape Dorset Art school, made this ring from soapstone and glass:
This 2014 printed drawing is the work of Quavavau Manumie (or Kavavaow Mannomee), a famous inuit artist also from Cape Dorset:
Cape Dorset is a small village on the large Baffin Island, Northeastern Canada, where Native Arts have been flourishing since 1957.
Cape Dorset's 'Kinngait' studios, where the best art from Nunavut is teached and produced.
Tim Pitsiulak and Shuvinai Ashoona drawing at the Kinngait Studio.
Qavavau Manumie is one of my favourite Nunavut artists.
And as this is the season of Greetings...
