The great Canadian artist Kenojuak Ashevak passed away January 8th at her home in Cape Dorset. She had a long and illustrious career and will be sorely missed by people near and far, both for her engaging personality for those who had the pleasure of meeting her and the creative genius that brought both her work and Inuit art to the forefront of the art world. Before we knew she was ill we had approached Kenojuak and Kingait Press to create an exclusive print for the gallery and the result is the stunning stone cut and stencil print, Owl's Courtship, just one of the many features in this exhibition, A Colourful Vision.  We had the priviledge of seeing the print being printed in Cape Dorset in July of 2012 by master printer Qavavau Manumie and have published the photos of the printing in progress on our web site.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of Kenojuak's body of work was her enthusiastic use of colour in almost all of her creations.  There are certainly fine monochromatic pencil as well as pen and ink drawings, but it is her use of vibrant colour that comes to mind most often when reflecting on the art that she has brought forth. 

Her pleasure in using colour is evident in the varied elements of this show.  The jewel like shades in the drawings of her fanciful birds with their elaborate plumage; the glowing tones in her massive sugar lift, etching, aqua tint and hand coloured Sun's Awakening, the ruby coloured stained glass panel Owl and Ravens and the sumptuous Thoughts of the Owl created with the Pangnirtung weaving studio.

The Inuit Gallery is proud to present this collection of works by Kenojuak and we invite you to join with us in A Colourful Vision.

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