Updates and highlights from the world of Inuit art and culture
Four Circumpolar Indigenous Artists Longlisted for Sobey Art Award, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory Makes Shortlist
For the first time in its history, four circumpolar Indigenous artists appeared on the Sobey Art Award longlist together. Animator, filmmaker and visual artist Glenn Gear was nominated for the Atlantic category; multidisciplinary performance and installation artist Tanya Lukin Linklater for Ontario; and installation, performance and textile artist Maureen Gruben for Prairies and North, alongside multidisciplinary ar tist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, who ultimately made the shortlist in the Prairies and North Category.
Williamson Bathory is kalaaleq (Greenlandic Inuit) based in Iqaluit, NU, best-known for her practice of uaajeerneq, or Greenlandic mask dance. She was the inaugural winner of both the Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award in 2018, and the Sinchi Indigenous Artist Award in 2020.
She made the shortlist alongside Gabi Dao (West Coast and Yukon), Rajni Perera (Ontario), Lorna Bauer (Quebec) and Rémi Belliveau (Atlantic).
After the success of last year’s award, the Sobey Art Foundation increased the overall prize value to $400,000. The overall winner will receive $100,000, shortlisted artists $25,000, and each of the longlisted artists will receive $10,000 in prize money. As is tradition, the shortlisted artists will also be featured in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada from October 2021 to February 2022, with the overall winner to be announced in November.
Nine Inuit Artists Break World Records at Auction
This July, First Arts held their fourth Inuit & First Nations Art Auction, a live virtual event that saw 10 Indigenous and Inuit artists break world records for sales.
The auction saw just under $1.2 million in sales, a success that speaks to the staying power of the Indigenous and Inuit art markets.
Three Inuit artists broke their own auction records. Reclining Polar Bear
(c. 1955) by Elijassiapik, sold for $38,400. Swimming Sedna (1998) by Oviloo Tunnillie, RCA, also topped the list, selling for $31,200 —tripling Tunnillie’s previous auction record. Matching that number was Young Hunter with Captured Geese (c. 1954–55) by Sheokjuk Oqutaq, which also sold for $31,200.
Other record-breaking sales include Manasie Akpaliapik’s Drum Dancer (1989) for $26,400, Mother with Two Children
(c. 1955–58) by Mary Sanaaq Papigatok for $24,000 and Mother with Three Children
(c. 1973–75) by Yvonne Kanayuq Arnakyuinak for $10,800.
The final three Inuit artists who broke auction records did so with print sales. Taleelayu and Family (1976) by Ananaisie Alikatuktuk sold for $7,800, an auction record for this print and artist, and pieces by Tim Pitsiulak and Lukta Qiatsuk sold for $4,320 and $8,400, respectively, both auction records for prints by the artists.
Inuit Art Quarterly Wins Best Editorial Package, Nominated for Seven National Magazine Awards
Inuit Art Quarterly received seven nominations at the National Magazine Awards this year, ultimately winning gold in the category of Best Editorial Package with the Spring 2020 issue Threads: Restitching Art Histories.
One of the features from Threads was also nominated for Best Short Feature
Writing. Krista Ulujuk Zawadski’s “Threading Memories” traces the evolution of nivingajuliat (wallhangings) in Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU. This is the second consecutive year the
IAQ has been nominated for Best Short Feature; Blandina Attaarjuaq Makkik took home the gold prize last year for “Remembering Our Ways: Film and Culture in Iglulik.”
You can read both pieces now at IAQ Online.
Also for the second consecutive year, the IAQ was nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary and Culture; Editorial Director Britt Gallpen and Executive Director Alysa Procida were nominated for Editor Grand Prix and Publisher Grand Prix, respectively.
The IAQ team would like to extend our sincere thanks and congratulations to all the writers and artists who contributed to our 2020 editorial calendar, for sharing their enthusiasm, passion and creativity in our pages. We would also like to thank our community of readers and supporters for their love of Inuit art and for their ongoing support.