Mary Mariq Kuutsiq
Flock of Appliqué Geese, before 2011
~
Kuutsiq was in the first generation of Inuit from Baker Lake who worked with textiles to create art.
Kuutsiq passed away in 2011. Her surviving daughters, Ruth Ikinilik Tapatai and Lucy Angoyuaq, are both renowed textile artists.
(Source: spiritwrestler.com)
Gwendolyn Best, Down to Lover’s Lane, n.d.
The cat sanctuary on Parliament Hill (known affectionately as Kitty Parliament) closed down earlier this year when all the stray cats were adopted out. Hopefully Best’s portraits of kitty parliament and its denizens can keep the memory of Canada’s most unusual cat shelter alive.
(Source: blogs.ottawacitizen.com)
Ohotaq Mikkigak
Plunge, 2010
Yellow Bear, 2010
~
Mikkigak is a printmaker from Cape Dorset.
“I enjoy doing colourful drawings, of people, animals, birds and especially the landscape. I used to enjoy hunting on the land, so that’s what I draw.”
(Source: dorsetfinearts.com)
Fringe
Rebecca Belmore (Anishnaabe)
Rebecca Belmore often uses the body to address violence against First Nations people, especially women. The woman in Fringe assumes the same reclining pose as the beautiful odalisques depicted by nineteenth- and twentieth-century European artists, but bears an ugly slash from shoulder to hip. The thin rivulets of blood that run from the gash are composed of small red beads, a detail that evokes both Belmore’s Anishinabe heritage and the trauma inflicted on indigenous peoples. Despite the graveness of the woman’s injury, Belmore’s Fringe is also about healing. The wound is not fatal; she has the strength to recover. But the scar will never disappear.
I love Rebecca Belmore.
Valérie Blass, She Was a Big Success, 2009
~
Blass is a sculptor from Montréal who is known for beginning her works with found objects that she develops. Here, she is working with body castings and wigs. The combination of realist and abstract approaches to her sculpture is meant to invoke a response in the viewer.
“Every sculpture is a body and has an attitude, I play with the capacity we have to see a face (or a body) in an abstraction.”
(Source: mbam.qc.ca)
Sakahan, the massive exhibition of aboriginal art from around the world, opens at the National Gallery of Canada, and it is a triumph.
I am so excited to go see this, I will be taking an art history seminar class that centres around the exhibition in July.
Drew Mosley
Acrylic Ink on Panel
24x24”
2013
Mosley’s neato art is hanging up in the Daily Grind Cafe on Somerset all month as a part of Chinatown Remixed. Go see it if you’re in Ottawa!
Dana Claxton, Daddy’s Gotta New Ride, 2008
~
From the artist’s website:
“I’m influenced by my own experience as a Lakota woman, a Canadian, a mixed-blood Canadian, and my own relationship to the natural and supernatural world. That whole bundle of experiences goes in to the artwork. I think that’s where the multi-layering comes in, because I’ve had a very multi-layered life.”
(Source: coastalartbeat.ca)
The Clothesline Project, 2011
Follow Ottawa’s Women’s Event Network for updates and information on The Clothesline Project.
The Clothesline Project is a fantastic installation wherein women who have been affected by domestic violence decorate tee-shirts and hang them up to “air out their dirty laundry”. I saw it at the Ravenswing DIY Festival last year and look forward to seeing it again there next weekend. Its very powerful and well worth checking out.
