The Artists 
For countless generations, Labrador Inuit have belonged to a vast coastal region of the Arctic and Subarctic along the Atlantic Ocean, now recognized as Nunatsiavut. Our ancestors have long produced skillfully made, useful, meaningful things essential to our continued existence on this land, and made from materials native to our land, sea, sky and ice. Over the last four centuries, as contact with the outside world increased, we also produced clothing, carvings, and other artwork for trade with the Europeans who visited our coast. Through these exchanges, Labrador Inuit objects made in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries can be found in museum collections worldwide. Yet in publications on modern Canadian Inuit art, Labrador Inuit artists and craftspeople are almost completely absent. Four living generations of artists have witnessed a dramatic time of transition on the Labrador coast. Their stories, memories, and knowledge, passed down through the generations of Inuit in our region, were, until very recently, little known outside of Nunatsiavut.

The following section briefly profiles the artists included in the exhibition. To learn more about any of these artists and to discover more Nunatsiavummiut artists and Inuit artists elsewhere, please visit both the Nunatsiavut artist profile site here and the Inuit Art Quarterly's extensive artist profiles here.

​Chantelle Andersen (b. 1986) Textile artist Chantelle Andersen first learned to sew from her mother and is a graduate of the Textiles: Craft and Apparel Design program at the College of the North Atlantic, St. John’s, NL. After beginning in the design program, Andersen switched to textiles, which better suited her desire for hands-on work. She majored in weaving and surface embellishment and began producing one-of-a-kind wearable artworks in her signature palette of vibrant greens and blues on black or navy blue, reminiscent of the northern lights in the Labrador sky. ​

Dinah Andersen (b. 1956) The work of multidisciplinary artist Dinah Andersen often focuses on Arctic wildlife and frequently provides subtle social commentary. Andersen, the daughter of elder artist Nellie Winters, is a prolific artist in her own right, having produced a large body of painting, prints, and other media over the past few decades. Andersen carved throughout the late 1980s but also began experimenting with drawing and painting. Today she maintains a thriving two-dimensional art practice, developed during her fine arts studies undertaken at the University of Ottawa. ​

​James Andersen (1919 - 2011) Photographer and filmmaker James Andersen, or “Uncle Jim” as he was affectionately known, was a prolific artist who chronicled life in the Labrador coast for over five decades. Given his first camera in 1940, Andersen developed photographs in a bedroom in his parents’ house for twelve years before purchasing a 35 mm camera in 1951. It is estimated that he created more than 10,000 images and videos in his lifetime, producing a visual arresting catalogue of works that reveal his keen eye for composition and colour, while creating an intimate portrait of the community of Makkovik through recent history. ​

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​Peggy Andersen (b. 1966) Peggy Andersen is a seamstress specializing in making items such as sealskin boots, mitts, and purses. She is also a skilled embroiderer, and often embellishes her work with fine decorative details. Although she was drawn to the visual arts as a child, she has only recently begun dedicating herself to sewing now that her children have grown. Andersen primarily learned to sew from her mother, though she attributes most of her knowledge about sewing hides to her first teachers, Emma Broomfield and Maria Merkuratsuk, who taught her how to work with untanned traditional sealskin. ​

​Michelle Baikie (b. 1964) Michelle Baikie was born in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and grew up in that community. She studied at Memorial University in the late 1980s and went on to complete a Bachelor of Science with a major in Biomedical Photographic Communications from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York in 1994, in addition to earning several other degrees later in life. Her expertise in ophthalmic photography sparked an interest in the digital manipulation of images. Her work has garnered much popular acclain within Nunatsiavut and beyond, and her photographs are held in many private and public collections. ​

​Sarah Baikie (b. 1950) Sarah Baikie has been producing beautiful grass basketry all her life. Her work can be found in several collections across North America as well as in many homes throughout Nunatsiavut. Baikie resides in Rigolet, a community renowned for producing finely made and imaginative grasswork. Baikie’s husband, Garland Baikie, also an artist, often carves handles for Sarah Baikie’s baskets. ​

​Fanny Broomfield (b. 1938) Fanny Broomfield frew up in Rigloet before moving to Happy Valley-Goose Bay for work. She began crass sewing in the late 1980s under the mentorship of Garmel Rich. At the height of her practice she was a prolific artist, at one time making six hundred pieces for a commercial exhibition. Although her eyesight now prevents her from doing much grasswork, she produces hundreds of pieces in her lifetime, and her beautiful and elaborately embroidered works can be found in public and private collections. In particular, her pieces now adorn the homes of her ten children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. ​

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​Heather Campbell (b. 1973) Heather Campbell is a university trained graphic artist residing in Ottawa. Campbell’s work is strongly tied to issues of cultural and personal identity, and she strives to college a viewers preconceived notions of Inuit art. Campbell maintains a successful and prolific career as an artist and curator, and she has exhibited widely in Ontario and Quebec, where many of her works also belong to public collections. ​

​Andrea Flowers (b. 1934) Andrea flowers is an accomplished craftsperson who enjoys sewing, knitting, and crocheting, though she is best known as a seamstress of kamek (sealskin boots). Her particular expertise is in creating the labour-intensive and meticulously stitched traditional waterproof “black-bottom” sealskin boots, with skin that she cleans and preps herself from seals caught by her sons. In addition to working with seal and hide, Flowers likes to sew, crochet and knit. She also does minimal beadwork on the mitts, slippers and boots she makes, sometimes collaborating with another local artist, Sarah Jensen.

Chesley Flowers (1924-1998) Chesley Flowers was born in Flowers Bay but lived in Hopedale most of his life. His father taught him to carve caribou figures from aspen and pine, and today his son and other members of the Flowers family carry on this tradition. Flowers also used caribou bone and antler to create his caribou scultures. When he started carving he sold his sculptures for a dollar each; now his pieces are prized objects in both private and public collections throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. In 1996 Flowers, like several artists in this exhibition, participated in the landmark group exhibition First: Aboriginal Artists of Newfoundland and Labrador.

​Emily Flowers (1942-2015) Emily Flowers was born in Shango Bay but grew up in the Inuit community of Hopedale. In her teens she moved to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to find work, and she also married there. Later in life she became a well-known craftsperson, supporting herself and her family by sewing mittens, slippers, and both duffel and sealskin coats as well as occasionally by teaching classes in craft practices in nearby North West River. Of all her works she is especially admired for her highly detailed and imaginative dolls, which she produced in both traditional and contemporary clothing, displaying regional or historical differences in dress. ​

​Vanessa Flowers (b. 1995) At the age of fifteen, Vanessa Flowers began attending a local sewing group accompanied by her grandmother Andrea Flowers and family friend Sarah Jensen. With their guidance, Vanessa Flowers began to develop her talents as a seamstress and craftsperson. While she primarily sews slippers, Flowers also makes dolls, sealskin boots, and small-scale items. She is also skilled in beadwork, which she uses to embellish many of her creations.

​Violet Flowers (b. 1943) Self-taught craftsperson Violet Flowers enjoys producing wearable articles such as mittens, kamek (sealskin boots), slippers, and brooches. She often embellishes her works with beads, fringe, and fur. For Flowers, sewing is not just a pastime; it is a way of life. She gets great fulfilment from making thing for others, and she particularly enjoys seeing how projects come together. As for many Nunatsiavummiut, the most challenging aspect of her craft is finding materials, which she stocks up on whenever she travels to Happy Valley-Goose Bay or Nain. ​

​Billy Gauthier (b. 1978) Billy Gauthier has been drawing and making art from a young age, and began to carve in 1996 after meeting his cousin John Terriak, the renowned Inuit sculptor of the trailblazing generation. Gauthier has recently received many accolades for his work. In 2011 he was named Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council (NLAC) Emerging Artist of the Year, shortly after holding his first commercial solo exhibition at Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver. Gauthier’s work is widely recognized for his tremendous skill with traditional Inuit materials, and the extent to which he pushes himself and his materials’ limits. ​

Gilbert Hay (b. 1951)  Few artists are better known within Nunatsiavut than Gilbert Hay, a sculptor and printmaker who has contributed significantly to the cultural and artistic life of Nain and Labrador. Since the mid-1970s Hay and his longtime collaborator, printmaker William Ritchie, were instrumental in the development of the local arts and crafts industry in Nain. Hay has always experimented with inlays and different kinds of materials, but his most recent body of work is carved almost exclusively in anorthosite–the granite-like stone found hear his home in Nain.

​Mark Igloliorte (b. 1977) Mark Igloliorte grew in Happy Valley-Goose Gay, and currently resides in Vancouver. He holds a BFA and an MFA; his painting practice often takes his land and culture– and his geographic separation from Nunatsiavut – as a central point of investigation. He teaches painting and drawing at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, and his work can be found in collections across Canada. ​

Susannah Igloliorte (1917-1992) Susannah “Susie” Igloliorte was a renowned Hopedale seamstress who worked in both textiles and sealskin. She was well known for her ability to make sealskin boots in a variety of styles. She also produced beautiful traditional and contemporary coats, embellished with either beadwork or embroidery. In 1945 Igloliorte began by embroidering a jacket with designs if Inuit people, Arctic animals, and Labrador scenes, inspiring a lifelong practice. ​

​Jason Jacque (b. 1977) Jason Jacque is a sculptor, jewellery maker, and graphic artist. Jacque regularly produces stone sculptures and bone and baleen earrings, and occasionally he sketches local scenes and Arctic wildlife in pencil and charcoal. For his large-scale stone works he draws stylistic and technical inspiration from a range of styles and genres, and employs for his complex mixed-media sculptures. 

​Josephine Jacque (b. 1950) Josephine Jacque is a craftsperson and grasswork artisan from Postville. While she has been knitting , crocheting, and sewing all her life, she has only recently taken to the serious pursuit of grass basketry, a challenging medium to which she has quickly adapted. She is interested in producing large-scale baskets and other vessels in grass, sometimes embellished with designs she creates using silk embroidery thread, or forming them using “open work”. ​

​​Samantha Jacque (b. 1975) Samantha Jacque is primarily a photographic artist, though she has also collaborated with her husband on the creation of a short film. While she is mostly self-taught, she has frequently sought out opportunities to deepen her knowledge of the practice, including participating in an ongoing series of photography workshops organized by the Nunatsiavut Government. Given a point-and-shoot camera as a teenager, Jacque discovered a talent for capturing light, strong composition, and action, sparking a lifelong interest in documenting people and events in her community.

​Ephraim Jararuse (b. 1977) Ephraim Jarause is an emerging stone sculptor who works in both steatite (soapstone) and serpentinite, two stones readily quarried around Nain, his hometown. Jarause has been carving for several years, primarily showing and selling his work through Torngat Arts and Crafts and directly to the local market. He also creates jewellery out of stone and moose antler. ​

​Sarah Jensen (b. 1958) Sarah Jensen, a widely respected seamstress from Hopedale, is an active volunteer and longtime craft instructor in her community. She regularly shares her skills and knowledge with community member to pass on the art of making beautiful and warm mittens, slippers, and other items of clothing. Jensen was recently featured in a documentary short entitled Handcrafted Hopedale (2015) and her innovative craft works are highly sought after throughout Labrador. ​

Josephina Kalleo (1920-1993) Josephina Kalleo was one of the earliest artists to gain recognition within Nunatsiavut. Kalleo began drawing in her sixties when she became interested in recording her own oral history while transcribing the tapes on an Inuit elder for the Torngâsok Cultural Centre in Nain. Using coloured felt-tip pens, she began creating images from events and memories through her life. These drawings, along with the oral history Kalleo recorded for each image, were exhibited and published in a book titled Taipsumane: A Collection of Labrador Stories (1984). It is still today one of the best descriptions of transitional Labrador Inuit life during the mid-twentieth century. ​

​Michael Massie (b. 1962) Metalsmith and sculptor Michael Massie is renowned for his teapots, mixed-media sculptures, and other artworks that fuse symbolic imagery, clever puns, and visual plays drawn from both Inuit culture and Western art history. He works in a variety of media including serpentinite, marble, wood, and whalebone, often incorporating precious metals such as silver and copper, or forming vessels accented with wood, fur, and paint. Whatever the subject matter, Massie’s works consistently include an element of narrative or oral history. ​

​Maria Merkuratsuk (b. 1958) Maria Merkuratsuk is a seamstress who has been sewing with sealskin for most of her life. Here she has created a pair of vibrant red mittens using the pattern passed down to her by her father. She not only maintains the traditional knowledge passed on from her parents but also enlivens it, reimagining traditional work in bright colours and different materials. ​

​Shirley Moorhouse (b. 1955) Shirley Moorhouse travelled the world before returning home to earn an Applied Arts Diploma in Heritage Crafts (1995) from Labrador College, later completing a BA at Carleton University in 2003. Since 1996 she has exhibited nationally and internationally in many solo and group exhibitions. She has served on the board of directors for the NunaKatiget Inuit Community Corporation in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, as well as the board of the Inuit Art Foundation intermittently between 1995 and 2011. ​

​Tabea Murphy (b. 1940) Tabea Murphy started drawing when she was in school in Nain, creating many scenes featuring Inuit hunting or fishing or depicting activities related to the Moravian Church, such as church holidays and Christmas scenes. An expert seamstress who has also made many articles of traditional clothing and footwear for her family, enjoys creating imagery of the traditional activities her family did when she was a child, such as going to their fall camp, gathering berries, or preparing sealskins for sewing. She has contributed many pieces of artwork to community organizations in Nain for different projects, such as a book on elders. ​

​Davidee Ningeok (b. 1982) Davidee Ningeok was born in Nunavut but was adopted into Nunatsiavut. He currently resides in Postville. Ningeok began carving as a teenager in Hopedale. He learned from watching the carvers in his adoptive family and experimenting on his own. Bringing his ideas to life is a rewarding challenge for Ningeok, who enjoys spending full days carving when possible. He primarily works in steatite, serpentinite, and whale bone but likes to experiment with new material. 

​Sophie Pamak (b. 1968) Sophie Pamak is a seamstress who primarily makes coats, which she learned to sew by watching her grandmother; both her grandmother and mother were accomplished seamstresses who made a living from their work. From a young age, Pamak’s family encourage her to sew out of enjoyment. Heeding their advice, Pamak is careful to maintain joy in her practice. An avid learner and adept pattern maker, she occasionally takes apart things sewn by her mother to create new patterns as well. ​

​Jacko Pijogge (1994-2015) Jacko Pijogge was a promising young artist who died by suicide in the summer of 2015 while this exhibition was being developed. Just months earlier he had participated in a specialized carving workshop led by Billy Gauthier and was developing into a great talent. His loss is deeply felt by his community. His works are included in the exhibition in honour of the many young loves tragically lost to suicide in northern communities. ​

Sem Pijogge (b. 1962) Sem Pijogge has been a sculptor for over twenty years. His work displays time-honed mastery of the sculptural media. His simple yet expressive figures effortlessly convent movement and emotion. Pijogge’s signature style combines inlay, smooth surfaces, and texture to create visual interest in his carvings of Inuit people engaged in a variety of activities. Pijogge prefers to work with serpentinite, which can readily be quarried around the northernmost communities in Nunatsiavut. ​

Barry Pottle (b. 1961) Barry Pottle, who currently resides in Ottawa, sees photography as a means to explore and examine contemporary issues and realities facing organ Inuit populations, highlighting Inuit culture, identity, tradition, and ways of life. One of Pottle’s major concerns has been urban Inuit access to wild traditional foods known as country food. His photography often explores the difficulty and necessity of accessing traditional food for Inuit who reside in urban locations. 

Derrick Pottle (b. 1957) Derrick Pottle is one of Rigolet’s few stone sculptors, perhaps owning in part to the region lacking a convenient, local stone supply, and for being better known for grass basketry and craft productions. Pottle has continued to produce exceptional work in the large studio on his property  over the last three decades. As a hunter, gatherer, and trapper, Pottle find his inspiration on the land, carving directly from what he sees and experiences throughout the year. ​

Druscilla Rich (1918-2004) From fresh grass to finished product, grasswork can take months to complete. Grass sewer Druscilla RIch said that to harvest the best ivik (saltwater grass), she would travel about thirty-five miles to Bluff Head from Rigolet each year. Ivik must be fathered along the shore edge, picked blade by blade, right at the end of autumn but before the first snowfall, and then it must be carefully dehydrated for several weeks in a dry area where it will not spoil. 

Garmel Rich (b. 1939) Garmel Rich has perfected the meticulous craft of grass basketry, widely practised in Rigolet. She began sewing grass at age seven, and by her teens she was greatly skilled in the practice. Now, as an elder, Rich continues to make beautiful grass pieces, and galleries, museums, and eager collectors worldwide seek to include her work in their collections. She has elevated the practice to new heights through her mastery of the materials and her ingenuity in manipulating the medium; she is both a master of the traditional practice and an innovative and experimental artist. ​

George Rich (1920-2006) George Rich learned the craft of grass sewing from his mother in his youth and soon after created works that he sold to Kitty Keddie, director of the Handicrafts Division of the International Grenfell Association in the 1930s and the 1940s. Continuing to work in grass through his life, Rich became a famed grass sewer whose ambitious works earned him a reputation as a skilled craftsperson.

Chris P. Sampson (b. 1978) Chris P. Sampson is a photographic artist who was born and raised in Labrador. After studying photography in British Columbia, Sampson returned home in 2004 to pursue his practice in Labrador. He has spent years photographing children and elders in Nunatsiavut’s coastal communities, as well as the majesty of the Torngat Mountains and other dramatic vistas in Labrador. His diverse practice includes aerial photography, low-light and time-lapse work, documentary, landscape, still life, and architectural imagery. ​

Doris Saunders (1941-2006) Doris Saunders was best known for her instrumental role in founding and editing the popular journal Them Days, for which she was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1986, but she was also known for her award-winning embroidery. Born in the southern Labrador community of Cartwright, Saunders had been practising the craft since the early 1950s, and over the course of her lifetime won many awards for her work,  she sold and showed all over Canada. In the 1990s she presented Queen Elizabeth II with a piece of her embroidery during a royal visit to Labrador. ​

Elias Semigak (b. 1980) Elias Semigak is an innovative stone sculptor, originally from Nain and now based in Clarenville, NL. He has exhibited his work widely within the province, and his work is included in many public and private collections. Semigak began carving by observing his father, who first taught him to carve using wood before graduating to local steatite and serpentinite. Today he experiments with many different kinds of stone, and he enjoys testing the limits of the various colourful materials he can access in the province. ​

Inez Shiwak (b. 1977) Inez Shiwak and her mother, Jane Shiwak, collaborated on a pair of moosehide and beaver-fur kamek (boots) that are shown in the exhibition. In creating the boots together Inez learned pattern-making and sewing techniques. This intergenerational knowledge sharing is at the heart of Inuit traditions. Although perhaps better known for her work as an accomplished seanstress, primarily working in tanned sealskin, Inez Shiwak has also been working in film and video for several years. 

Jane Shiwak (b. 1952) ​Jane Shiwak was born in West Bay between Cartwright and Rigolet but has lived in Rigolet for most of her life, where she runs The Craft Shop. A highly regarded seamstress and craftsperson, Shiwak has been doing grasswork and making slippers, mittens, clothing, and dolls throughout her life. She was eleven years old when her mother began teaching her grasswork, which Shiwak believes her bother did to help her cope with her experiences of living in the residential school dormitory. Shiwak has since devoted years to the perfection of this art form and others, and to passing on that knowledge to her daughter and local community members. 

Jason Shiwak (b. 1973) Jason Shiwak is a self-taught graphic artist from Rigolet, currently residing in Nova Scotia, who has been drawing all his life. He studied various art practices by observing his aunts and uncles paint, carve wood, sew grass, and make other works in his community. He began showing and selling his pencil, charcoal, and pen-and-ink drawings in the early 2000s, and his works can be found in collections throughout Nunatsiavut. ​

John Terriak (b. 1950) Since the 1990s John Terriak has been not only one of the most influential and prolific artists in Nunatsiavut but also one of the best-known Labrador Inuit artists through Canada, thanks to his work as a board member and later president of the Inuit Art Foundation. Using this platform he has been instrumental in raising the profile of Nunatsiavut art and advocating for artists through his long and successful career, which began when Terriak was only seventeen years old. He often carves or draws images that are sourced from personal dreams and natural phenomena, which he then conceptualizes as figures that appear the emerge from the materials themselves. ​

Rhoda Voisey (1924-2013) An active member of the local arts community in Makkovik, Voisey taught classes on the preparations and sewing of sealskins and other crafts, and she frequently sold her work through the local craft shop run by the Makkovik Crafts Council, one of the oldest continuous arts organizations in Nunatsiavut. Voisey was well known in Makkovik for her beautiful craftwork, which included knitting and crocheting all manner of clothing and sewing sealskin mitts, slippers, and boots, often embellished with fringe and beadwork. Her family recounts that she was highly productive throughout her long life, continuing to knit and sew well into her eighties. 

Jennie Williams (b. 1981) Jennie Williams is a photographer from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, now living in Nain. Her artistic practice centres on capturing the lived experiences of the Inuit in Nunatsiavut. In the series Nalujuk Night, shot in the community of Nain, Williams captures an annual event distinct to the Labrador Inuit, born of both Moravian and Inuit traditions. On Nalujuk Night (January 6th), also known as Old Christmas Day, terrifying figures with frightening masks emerge from the sea ice to chase children around town. The only way to escape, and perhaps even be rewarded with a treat, is to sing them a song in Inuktitut. Williams images captures the excitement of the whole community on this festive night. ​

Nellie Winters (b. 1938) Master seamstress Nellie Winters is not only one of the most respected artists in her community but also the matriarch of a four-generation family with many talented artists and craftspeople living throughout Labrador, with whom she has shared her skills and knowledge. Winters began embroidering and making Inukuluk (Inukuluit) figures as a child in a boarding school. While she is an expert in several tradtional art forms, in her practice Winters thrives on learning new techniques and produces a range of object from a variety of materials. ​

Ryan Winters (b. 1989) Ryan Winters started experimenting with photography with a 35-mm camera when he was about ten years old and then transitioned to digital later in his career. A largely self-taught artist who has participated in a number of photography workshops and worked professionally as an event photographer, he is an emerging talent whose works express an interest in landscapes, wildlife, and Inuit culture. Winters is also known for his portraiture, and his images often depict Inuit subjects, critically portraying aspect of time, change, tradition, and modernity in relation to Inuit ways of life.