With a career spanning more than five decades, Kenojuak Ashevak (1927 – 2013) was part of a pioneering generation of Arctic creators from Kinngait (Cape Dorset) in Nunavut. She enjoyed an illustrious international career and continues to be regarded as one of Canada’s preeminent Inuit artists and cultural icons. Since beginning to experiment with drawing in the 1950s, she has produced a vast body of work, mainly utilizing graphite, coloured pencils and felt-tip pens on paper.

This exhibition comprises never-before-exhibited drawings from the archives of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, which have inspired some of Kenojuak’s most emblematic prints in stonecut, lithography and etching. Kenojuak Ashevak: Life and Legacy is curated by Louisa Parr (Kenojuak Cultural Centre) and William Huffman (West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative). This project was the inaugural exhibition at the Kenojuak Cultural Centre in Kinngait and is the first exhibition produced in the Canadian Arctic, for circulation nationally.

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