Elisapee Ishulutaq: Prints and Drawings

One of Inuit art’s most prominent artists, Elisapee Ishulutaq made an important contribution to Canadian art history. Born in 1925 at Kagiqtuqjuaq, a small camp on Baffin Island, she spent the first decades of her life learning the traditions of the Baffin Inuit. In the late 1960s she moved to the growing community of Pangnirtung, where she quickly became involved in the local art scene, making drawings that were translated into prints and weavings by Inuit practitioners. Always an innovator, in the last decade of her life Ishulutaq explored a variety of media and subject matter, working with the new mediums of etching and drawing with oil sticks. This profile showcases the results of some of these remarkable later explorations. Whether the subject matter is traditional and land-based or urban and modern, these images powerfully express Ishulutaq’s colourful vision and trademark exuberance.

Ishulutaq’s works are included in many important public and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2014, she was named to the Order of Canada in recognition of her artistic achievements and cultural contributions.