Loondance Gallery / Galerie l'envol du huart

Born in 1935, growing up on the land, Kananginak Pootoogook was a lifelong student and lover of arctic nature, and he devoted his artistic powers to portraying the wealth of images that it provided. The first six works in this show were completed between 1992 and 1999: they are extraordinary renderings of birds, caught meticulously in a variety of movements. Completed in 2007 and in 2008, two years before his death, the last drawings below depict Cape Dorset and its uniquely identifiable landscape. Fittingly, they express a profound attachment to his native land and deep sympathy for the lifestyle of the Inuit. Besides being an accomplished multidisciplinary artist and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, Kananginak Pootoogook was one of the driving forces behind the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative.