Reviewed by Robin Laurence
Kananginak Pootoogook, who died in 2010, is commemorated in this fine exhibition of drawings at Marion Scott Gallery. The work on view, executed in ink and coloured pencil on paper, serves as a sequel to a retrospective of the artist that the gallery mounted two years ago as a compliment to Vancouver’s Cultural Olympiad. A pioneer Cape Dorset printmaker (he trained with James Houston in the late 1950s) and member of the highly creative Pootoogook clan, Kananginak pursued a graphic style and subject matter that the Scott Gallery’s Robert Kardosh describes in conversation as “narrative realism.” This is a genre, Kardosh says, quite distinct from the “fantastical/spiritual” aspect of modern Inuit art. From early in his career, Kananginak was identified with detailed images of birds, and always evinced a strong feeling for the wild creatures whose lives were deeply intertwined with Inuit culture and survival. In recent years, however, he was also a keen observer of his community’s social interactions and daily tasks, along with the tools and equipment that served them. He became an accomplished self-portraitist, too.
