Leah Pipe
Leah Pipe's striking images compel us to delve deep into the details of the natural world. By isolating her images on the canvas and painting with great precision, she invites us to contemplate the rich shape and colour that surrounds us but that most of us rarely take the time to appreciate.
Leah Pipe is a talent new to the Inuit Gallery of Vancouver. She is non-indigenous, is based in Hazelton, BC where her family has lived for four generations and where she has been part of the art community for over 20 years. She is inspired by the land, people and wildlife of the area, and has an abiding interest in the First Nation cultures of the Northwest Coast. In addition to the images now at the Inuit Gallery, Leah also creates beautiful prints and drawings, sometimes from historical photos of members of the local Gitxsan community, with whom she collaborates.
Her current group of paintings feature close-up images of ravens, a red-tail hawk and a caribou all set against flat painted backgrounds or the raw linen of her canvases. Her paint handling is assured and she skillfully captures minute details such as the variations of colour in a raven's feathers, the sharp vision of the hawk, or the wary glance of a caribou. Her traditional subject matter is offset by the contemporary quality of her work, which allows it to successfully integrate with either aesthetic.