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Kananginak Pootoogook, RCA, sculptor, designer, draughtsman, printmaker (born 1935 at Ikerrasak camp, NWT [now NU]; died 23 November 2010 in Ottawa, ON). Kananginak Pootoogook was a renowned artist who was one of the original printers in Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) during the Inuit printmaking artistic movement.
Early Life and Career
Kananginak Pootoogook was the son of the great camp leader Pootoogook. He moved to Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in 1957. In 1958, when James Houston brought printmaking to the North, he became one of the four original printers (see Inuit Printmaking). He contributed to the creation of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (see Inuit Co-operatives). Kananginak Pootoogook worked in all media, but he excelled as an engraver and lithographer. In particularly, he mastered wildlife art while retaining a personal style with definite abstract qualities. Later, he made baroquely detailed sculptures, exhibiting the same skill that he showed in his engravings. In 1997, he was commissioned by the governor general of Canada to create an inuksuk. In 2017, Kananginak Pootoogook became the first Inuit artist to be included in the headline event at the Venice Biennale.
Honours and Awards
In 1980 Kananginak Pootoogook was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. In 2010, he was the recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award (now Indspire Award).
