Ohotaq (Oqutaq) Mikkigak (1936 - 2014) was a

Cape Dorset Kinngait (Inuktitut meaning "high mountain" or "where the hills are"; Syllabics: ᑭᙵᐃᑦ), formerly known as Cape Dorset until 27 February 2020, is an Inuit hamlet located on Dorset Island near Foxe Peninsula at the southern tip of Baffin ...

(now Kinngait) based

Inuk Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...

artist from southern

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

."Ohotaq (Oqutaq) Mikkigak (1936-2014)," ''Spirit Wrestler Gallery'', 2013, Accessed March 23, 2018, http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=64 . Mikkigak was involved with Cape Dorset

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...

in the program's early years, providing drawn designs for printing. Many of his works were printed and featured in the studio's annual collections, including ''Eskimo Fox Trapper'' and three pieces used in the Cape Dorset Studio's 40th anniversary collection. Mikkigak's work has also been included in of over twenty group exhibitions and was the subject of multiple solo exhibitions, including a show held by Feheley Fine Arts called ''Ohotaq Mikkigak: Imagined Landscapes''."Ohotaq Mikkigak," ''Dorset Fine Arts'', Accessed March 23, 2018, http://www.dorsetfinearts.com/ohotaq-mikkigak/ .

Career

Formative years

Mikkigak drew for the

printmaking program when it was in its early stages of operation. His first printed work, ''Eskimo Fox Trapper,'' was realized in 1961. As the printmaking studio progressed, Mikkigak partially withdrew his participation, beginning to work full-time for numerous community-based agencies. Following his retirement from caretaking at the Peter Pitseolak School in Cape Dorset, Mikkigak returned to drawing, and three of his works were included in the Cape Dorset print studio's 40th anniversary collection (released in 1999). Three

lithographed Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

versions of his works used the chine collé technique, and were included in the Annual Print Collection of 2001."Ohotaq Mikkigak," ''DaVic Gallery of Native Canadian Arts'', Accessed March 16, 2018, https://nativecanadianarts.com/artist/ohotaq-mikkigak/ . A print of Mikkigak's work called ''Three Ravens'' (2001-2005) was also included in 2001 catalogue for the

West Baffin Eskimo Co-Operative The West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, also known as the Kinngait Co-operative is an Inuit co-operative in Kinngait, Nunavut best known for its activities in buying, producing and selling Inuit artworks. The co-operative is part of Arctic Co-operati ...

(Kinngait Co-operative).

Later career

Mikkigak's first solo exhibition of drawings and prints was held in September 2010 at Feheley Fine Arts in

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. He had another solo show at Feheley Fine Arts in November 2012 called ''Ohotaq Mikkigak: Imagined Landscapes.'' Also in 2012, Mikkigak exhibited several large-scale drawings alongside the works of fellow Canadian artist

Jack Bush John Hamilton Bush (March 20, 1909 – January 24, 1977) was a Canadian abstract painter. A member of Painters Eleven, his paintings are associated with the Color Field movement and Post-painterly Abstraction. Inspired by Henri Ma ...

at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. Mikkigak's other group exhibitions include:

Selected exhibits

* June–July, 2010: ''North Meets South'', Feheley Fine Arts (Toronto, Ontario) * July–December, 2010: ''Nipirasait (Many Voices): Inuit Prints from Cape Dorset'',

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(

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, United States) * June, 2011: ''Dorset Large: Large Scale drawings from the Kinngait Studios'', Feheley Fine Arts (Toronto, Ontario) * February–March, 2012: ''Dorset Now'', Feheley Fine Arts (Toronto, Ontario) * October, 2012: ''2012 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection'', Galerie d'Art Vincent (

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario) * April–June, 2013: ''Dorset Seen'',

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(Ottawa, Ontario) * October, 2013: ''Toronto International Art Fair,''

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(Toronto, Ontario) * October–November, 2013: ''The Hand of the Artist,'' Feheley Fine Arts (Toronto, Ontario)

Collections

Mikkigak's work is featured in several collections including: * The

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

(

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, U.S.) *The

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) * The

Dennos Museum Center The Dennos Museum Center is a fine art museum and cultural center located in Traverse City, Michigan on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). Most notable for its permanent collection of Inuit art, the Dennos Museum opened in 1991 and ...

Northwestern Michigan College Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) is a public community college in Traverse City, Michigan. Founded in 1951, it enrolls nearly 4,000 students. NMC offers associate degrees and professional certificates, bachelor's degrees through the Great La ...

(

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, U.S.) * The

Glenbow Museum The Glenbow Museum is an art and history regional museum in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The museum focuses on Western Canadian history and culture, including Indigenous perspectives. The Glenbow was established as a private non-profi ...

(

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

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) * The Klamer Family Collection at the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...

(Toronto, Ontario) * The

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(

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, Ontario) * The

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, Québec *The

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(Ottawa) * The Arnold Aubert Vernon Inuit Collection at

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(

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, U.S.) *The

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(

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, U.S.) * The

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)

Major influences

Mikkigak's time hunting on the land and stories from his grandmother highly influenced his work. It is noted that he did not look to colonial artists or art history for artistic inspiration.Campbell, Nancy (November 2, 2012)
"Inuit Artist Ohotaq Mikkigak Draws on Landscapes of Ice and Memory"
''Canadian Art''. Accessed March 16, 2018. It has been observed that

Inuit art Inuit art, also known as Eskimo art, refers to artwork produced by Inuit, that is, the people of the Arctic previously known as Eskimos, a term that is now often considered offensive. Historically, their preferred medium was walrus ivory, but s ...

ists of Mikkigak's period drew significant inspiration from the apprenticeship structure of Arctic co-ops (such as the Cape Dorset printmaking studio). While Mikkigak was a practicing artist, he worked with James Houston and others based out of the Cape Dorsert (Kinngait) printmaking studio's first location, a government-issued building known as the ''sanaguavik''. Houston was known for encouraging Inuit artists to draw based on their ''isumanniivit'' (their own thoughts), which is likely to have influenced Mikkigak's work.

Style

Mikkigak's work covered a board spectrum of subjects and themes, and was often done in pencil crayon (a medium that was particularly prevalent among Inuit

graphic artists A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published me ...

). Mikkigak's work also consistently emphasized the sky and weather patterns, often using an

aerial view A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downwards. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photograph, but also a draw ...

for the composition. It was common for artists, including Mikkigak, to use

Inuktitut syllabics Inuktitut syllabics ( iu, ᖃᓂᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ, qaniujaaqpait, or , ) is an abugida-type writing system used in Canada by the Inuktitut-speaking Inuit of the territory of Nunavut and the Nunavik and Nunatsiavut regions of Quebec and Labra ...

at the bottom of a piece in order to explain the scene in detail, as well as to use larger formats and manipulate scale in order to convey the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

landscape's expansiveness. A theme in Mikkigak and other Inuit artists' work is the use of landscapes to represent memories connected to the represented land, rather than purely the reality of the scene depicted. Mikkigak's drawings did not seek to abstract the landscape, despite his later images taking on a more contemporary style and tone. Instead, he took inspiration from both imagined and real spaces in order to represent their expansive and all-encompassing nature, while focalizing

Northern Canada Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, territor ...

as a fertile rather than barren landscape of colour and open space. He is noted for his

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

illustrations, and has said that he enjoyed making drawings filled with colour; especially landscapes, and scenes using animals (particularly birds) and people.

Personal life

Mikkigak was married to

Qaunak Mikkigak Qaunaq Mikkigak (alternatively spelled Qaunak, Haunak) (November15, 1932 – 2020) was a Canadian artist and author. She was known primarily for sculpting but also created jewelry, story telling, drawing and performed throat singing. As an arti ...

(sometimes spelled Haunak or Qaunak), an Inuk throat singer and carver. They lived the traditional Inuit lifestyle together before settling in

Bibliography

* "Available Prints by Ohotaq Mikkigak." ''Dorset Fine Arts''. Accessed March 16, 2018. http://www.dorsetfinearts.com/available-prints-by-ohotaq-mikkigak/. * Campbell, Nancy. "Inuit Artist Ohotaq Mikkigak Draws on Landscapes of Ice and Memory." ''Canadian Art''. November 2, 2012. Accessed March 16, 2018. https://canadianart.ca/features/the-colour-of-ice-ohotaq-mikkigak-and-the-landscape-of-memory/. * "Mikkigak, Ohotaq." ''Canadian Art Prints and Winn Devon''. Accessed March 16, 2018. http://capandwinndevon.com/brand/mikkigak-ohotaq/. * "Ohotaq Mikkigak." ''Artsy''. Accessed March 16, 2018. https://www.artsy.net/artist/ohotaq-mikkigak. * "Ohotaq Mikkigak." ''DaVic Gallery of Native Canadian Arts''. Accessed March 16, 2018. https://nativecanadianarts.com/artist/ohotaq-mikkigak/. * "Ohotaq Mikkigak." ''Dorset Fine Arts''. Accessed March 23, 2018. http://www.dorsetfinearts.com/ohotaq-mikkigak/. * "Ohotaq Mikkigak." ''Inuit Art Zone''. Accessed March 16, 2018. https://www.inuitartzone.com/collections/mikkigak-ohotaq. * "Ohotaq Mikkigak." ''National Gallery of Canada''. Accessed March 16, 2018. https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/ohotaq-mikkigak. * "Ohotaq (Oqutaq) Mikkigak (1936-2014)." ''Spirit Wrestler Gallery''. 2013. Accessed March 16, 2018. http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=64.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikkigak, Ohotaq 1936 births 2014 deaths Inuit artists Inuit from the Northwest Territories Inuit from Nunavut People from Kinngait Canadian printmakers 20th-century Canadian printmakers 21st-century printmakers Artists from Nunavut