FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December8, 2011 PRESS Contact: Robert Kardosh RELEASE Tel: 604-685-1934 Email: [email protected]

KANANGINAK POOTOOGOOK: MEMORIAL EXHIBITION DECEMBER 10, 2011 – JANUARY 28, 2012 Marion Scott exhibition celebrates the legacy of one of art’s founding pioneers

Vancouver, BC—The Marion Scott Gallery and Kardosh Projects are pleased to announce an exhibition of works celebrating the life and legacy of Kananginak Pootoogook (1935-2010). On view from December 10 to January 28, the exhibition will comprise 27 drawings made by Pootoogook across the last five years, including some of his last works produced in the months before his death in November 2010. An opening reception and public tribute will be held in the gallery on Saturday, December 10, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

In an artistic career that lasted more than five decades, Pootoogook produced a body of work of lasting cultural and aesthetic significance. Born in 1935 in a small hunting camp on southern Baffin Island near Cape Dorset, he was raised to be a hunter and trapper like his father. But in 1957, he began collaborating with James Houston, an artist from southern Canada hired by the federal government to establish the North’s first printmaking studio. Working first as a printmaker responsible for translating drawings by the community’s older artists into limited edition stonecut prints, Pootoogook soon developed his own drawing style. Alongside the print shop’s national and international success, Pootoogook’s own artistic career blossomed. He became known especially for his careful studies of birds and other northern wildlife. Later, he began making a visual record of in transition, documenting many of the changes he had witnessed throughout his lifetime. Pootoogook continued to draw until the spring of 2010, when illness forced him to seek treatment in an hospital.

The exhibition will feature a number of Pootoogook’s distinctive wildlife portraits, including several of caribou, a subject for which he was especially known. In these iconic images, Pootoogook represents the

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animal’s seasonal habits, using unconventional perspectives to show these majestic creatures from a variety of startling angles. Other drawings portray birds that frequent the arctic, including families of snowy owls and colonies of murres (sea birds that resemble penguins). In a few works, Pootoogook has used bird forms as a starting point for more purely abstract compositions.

The exhibition is notable also for several images that document social and cultural change in the North. In a fascinating series of drawings from 2006, the artist has appropriated modern ethnographic representations to create his own catalogue of traditional and modern tools, as these index various phases and transformations of Inuit culture. Other images portray the use of modern technology such as skidoos and augers or ice drills.

In a suite of autobiographical drawings from 2010, among the last works the artist produced, Pootoogook depicts himself, either alone or in the company of Shooyoo, his wife. In one especially brilliant image, he presents himself circa 1965 as a young man wearing a suit and sunglasses—a look back at his early days as a global ambassador for the new expressions coming out of the North.

“Pootoogook was both a respected leader in his community and a founding pioneer of modern ,” says gallery director Judy Kardosh. “His ground-breaking work helped paved the way for a new generation of Inuit artists, encouraging them to explore a range of contemporary themes in their expression. We are honoured to be able in this exhibition to celebrate the legacy of this important Canadian artist.”

Partial proceeds from the exhibition will be donated to a social services organization in Cape Dorset.

For more information about Kananginak Pootoogook: Memorial Exhibition, please contact Robert Kardosh at 604-685-1934. For general enquiries, please email [email protected]. High-resolution images are available upon request.

About Marion Scott Gallery | Kardosh Projects Now in its 36th year of operation, the Marion Scott Gallery has a long history of showcasing the best of contemporary art from the Canadian North. Specializing in both new and historical expressions from the Arctic in a range of media, the family-run gallery is committed to positioning the work of Canada’s Inuit artists within a national and international contemporary artistic framework. Now located in ’s South Granville gallery district, the Gallery has recently expanded its activities to include, under the name Kardosh Projects, a series of sponsored initiatives with some of the Canada’s most innovative artists.

### Images (left to right) Untitled (detail), 2006, coloured pencil & ink on paper, 26 x 20", Inscription: Men's hunting gear Untitled (detail), 2010, coloured pencil & ink on paper, 19.5 x 25.5", Inscription: Shooyoo and Kananginak Untitled (detail), 2005, coloured pencil & ink on paper, 20 x 26", Inscription: Murres at their island laying eggs Untitled (detail), 2010, coloured pencil & ink on paper, 16.5 x 14", Inscription: Kananginak in his younger years, back in 1965 in . Terry (Ryan) took this picture

2423 Granville Street,Vancouver, BC, Canada V6H 3G5 | Tel: 604.685.1934 | Fax: 604.685.1890 | [email protected] www.marionscottgallery.com