SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut

16 February 2019 – 20 May 2019

About the Exhibition

Curated By

Heather Igloliorte

Organized & Circulated By

The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery Division, St. John’s, NL

Galleries

Kenderdine Gallery

SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut is the first major exhibition on the art of the Labrador Inuit. SakKijâjuk — meaning “to be visible” in the Nunatsiavut dialect of Inuktitut — provides an opportunity for visitors, collectors, art historians, and art aficionados from the South and the North to come into intimate contact with the distinctive, innovative and always breath-taking work of the contemporary Inuit artists and craftspeople of Nunatsiavut. In recent decades, artists from the territory have produced work in a variety of contemporary art media while also working with traditional materials in new and unexpected ways. Organized by The Rooms, the exhibition includes a diverse range of work by 47 artists across four generations, including works on paper, painting, photography, sculpture, textile works, and video.

Nunatsiavut, the Inuit region of Canada that achieved self-government in 2005, produces art that is distinct within the world of Canadian and circumpolar Inuit art. The world’s most southerly population of Inuit, the coastal people of Nunatsiavut have always lived both above and below the tree line, and Inuit artists and craftspeople from Nunatsiavut have had access to a diverse range of Arctic and Subarctic flora and fauna, from which they have produced a stunningly diverse range of work.

Artists from the territory have traditionally used stone and woods for carving; fur, hide, sealskin for wearable art; and salt water seagrass for basketry, as well as wool, metal, cloth, beads, and paper. In recent decades they have produced work in a variety of contemporary art media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and ceramics, while also working with traditional materials in new and unexpected ways.

The MacKenzie Art Gallery is grateful for the support of South Saskatchewan Community Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, City of Regina, University of Regina, and Saskatchewan Arts Board.

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada and by the Nunatsiavut Government.

Works in the Exhibition

Installation view of

Installation view of "SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut", MacKenzie Art Gallery, 2019. Photo: Don Hall.

 
Installation view of

Installation view of "SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut", MacKenzie Art Gallery, 2019. Photo: Don Hall.

 
Installation view of

Installation view of "SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut", MacKenzie Art Gallery, 2019. Photo: Don Hall.

 
Installation view of

Installation view of "SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut", MacKenzie Art Gallery, 2019. Photo: Don Hall.