Profile: Latcholassie Akesuk

Marion Scott Gallery is pleased to present a profile featuring three sculptural works by the well-known Inuit artist Latcholassie Akesuk (1919 – 2000). The profile is timed to coincide with the gallery’s current feature exhibition twinning sculptures by Arviat’s Luke Anowtalik with contemporary graphic works by Kinngait’s Saimaiyu Akesuk, Latcholassie Akesuk’s granddaughter. The three profiled works exemplify some of the major themes for which the legendary sculptor is known. All three works portray owls or owl-like forms, a favourite subject of the artist, rendered in a non-naturalistic manner. An image of a bird in bright green stone, produced in the early 1980s, appears almost human-like as it sits securely on the ground, its long legs pulled up for support. A second work from the same era, rendered in brown-green stone, is even more explicit in terms its subject’s humanness: here, the figure’s large round head takes on identifiably human features. In contrast to these enigmatic portraits of apparently hybrid beings, a sculpture in white marble of a perched owl is more purely avian in orientation. As with virtually all of the artist’s images of animals, however, this work is similarly imbued with a figural presence and bearing. These three works suggest that the artist was deeply influenced by Inuit spiritual beliefs about the transformational powers of creatures and shamans.