Emerak: Drawings

Mark Emerak was in his mid-60s when he began making drawings for the Holman Co-operative in 1966. Over the course of the next decade and a half, the former hunter produced some 900 drawings depicting the traditional customs and lifestyle of the Copper Inuit. While over 40 of these images were translated into stonecuts as part of Holman’s printmaking program, the public has had little opportunity to view Emerak’s drawn works, most of which have remained in storage since his death in 1983.

This small yet important exhibition of drawings contains some of the artist’s early graphite works as well as a selection of his later coloured compositions. Like may of his prints, Emerak’s line drawings are composed without regard to conventional Western perspective, and feature the artist’s distinctive use of tight enclosures to define a variety of elements including mitts, boots, and footprints in the snow.