MacAllaster House
Kananginak Pootoogook
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kananginak Pootoogook (1935-2010) was an Inuit sculptor, printmaker, and drawer best known for depicting Inuit values, beliefs, and ways of life. Working within a naturally toned palette, he had a way of gradually lightening or blending together colors to bring to life the bodies of his wild subjects. His style leans into the use of simple, organic, and naturalistic forms, occasionally featuring stylistic pops of color or imaginatively drawn body parts. In both animal and human subjects, Kananginak utilized meticulous and repetitive mark making to emulate furry and feathered elements. Generally speaking, his work documents many aspects of Inuit life such as camp and hunting scenes, Arctic animals, and humorous interactions between people.
His work has been exhibited and is held internationally in galleries, museums and collections, including the Marion Scott Gallery in Vancouver, the Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 1980 he was elected as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and in 2010 was given the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the arts category. Even seven years after his death, in 2017, he became the first Inuit artist to have work included in the Venice Biennale.
Kananginak was born on January 1, 1935, in what is now Nunavut, at Ikerasak, a traditional Inuit camp. His father, Josephie (Eegyvudluk) Pootoogook, was the respected leader of the camp and taught him to hunt and trap. Kananginak’s values stem from a traditional Inuit upbringing and were directly funneled into his later artwork. In 1957, Kananginak and his wife Shooyoo moved to Cape Dorset, where he began to work with James Houston to create drawings and prints.
From 1959 to 1964, he served as president of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (WBEC) print program, where he worked as one of four original master printers of the studio while striving to involve art in his community and also provide economic opportunity. WEBC was the first Inuit owned co-op. By the 1970s, Kananginak was working as a full-time artist, producing carvings, prints, and drawings for WBEC, the World Wildlife Fund, and even building an inukshuk stone carving in Cape Dorset for former Governor General of Canada, Romeo LeBlanc, among other projects.
– Research and writing by Eva Yeo, SLU Class of 2023
