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Dear friends,
Please visit us in person or online to see our new acquisitions. Of course, we can only highlight a fraction of our selections in newsletters and on the website. If you are looking for a particular artist, subject or community, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.
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Itee Pootoogook
Sun Rise
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Happy New Year!
Our best wishes to you and yours for a happy and healthy 2015. We will be celebrating the New Year from January 1 - 5. Alaska on Madison will reopen January 6 with its regular hours, Tuesday - Saturday, 1:30-6:00 pm. Start the New Year right by joining us for the opening reception for Thirty from the Sixties (below), January 8 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.
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Thirty from the Sixties: The First Decade of Inuit Printmaking
January 8 - 31, 2015
Thirty from the Sixties: The First Decade of Inuit Printmaking
presents thirty prints from the 1960s. The 1960s were a time for experimentation with new media and new techniques. The collection includes both naive and sophisticated images, and both hyper-realistic and wildly fantastic images. Cape Dorset is represented by twenty-five prints created by fifteen different artists, including Kenojuak Ashevak, Kananginak Pootoogook, Parr, Pitseolak Ashoona, Lucy Qinnuayuaq, Pudlo Pudlat and Kiakshuk. Povungnituk is represented by four prints created by Davidialuk Alasua Ammitu and two other artists, and Iqaluit is represented by a single print by Henry Evaluardjuk.
This was a time of explosive experimentation. Prints were made using stonecut, stencil, and etching techniques. Each medium favored different types of images. In addition to stonecuts, the exhibition includes beautifully detailed etchings and bold stencils. A series of prints created by Pitseolak Ashoona show the range of stonecut's possibilities, with subjects as varied as realistic images of camp life and fantastic creatures (such as
Night Demons of the Earth and Sky, pictured above).
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 In memoriam Kiugak Ashoona (1933-2014)
Kiugak (formerly referred to as Kiawak) Ashoona died on December 3, 2014, marking the end of a year in which Inuit art lost too many elders. In her introduction to Kiugak Ashoona: Stories and Imaginings from Cape Dorset, Darlene Coward Wight called Kiugak "the last early master," because he was then (2010) the last survivor of the first generation of Inuit artists.
 | | Kiugak Ashoona, Natturalik [bird spirit] and young |
Kiugak's daughter Goota Ashoona wrote, on behalf of Kiugak's family: "It is amazing to realize that an internationally identifiable indigenous art form was created by men like my father and families like ours.
"During the 1960s my father, his siblings, and my grandmother [Pitseolak Ashoona] expressed themselves in stone and on paper, and it probably comes as a surprise to many to understand that my father created a notable body of work on paper over the years. The work in stone was an expression of the Inuit experience as my father understood it, and the returns from these works fed and clothed us as well as many in our community. . . . If my father was not carving, he was entertaining and storytelling, and his ability to entertain and enthral young and old with stories about Inuit and Inuit legends sustained us during many a cold night." Kiugak Ashoona: Stories and Imaginings from Cape Dorset, p. 8.
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About Us
Alaska on Madison is a gallery of indigenous art of Alaska and Canada run by collectors for collectors. We feature Inuit art of the twentieth and twenty-first century Canadian Arctic, two-thousand-year-old objects from the Old Bering Sea cultures, and nineteenth century art from the Northwest Coast peoples and Yup'ik Eskimos. Our collection ranges from museum-quality works to more modest but still excellent works for private collectors, whether novice or sophisticated. We also have a selection of books that will enhance your appreciation of your collection.
Baffled by syllabic signatures? Learn how to interpret them by using our guide, Deciphering Inuktitut Signatures, and our Inuit Artist Search Tool.
Regular gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday 1:30 - 6:00 pm, but it's always a good idea to call or email in advance in case we have an appointment out of the gallery.
Visit our website
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