Myra Kukiiyaut
Myra Kukiiyaut was a talented artist from Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU. Kukiiyaut was a printmaker, graphic artist, sculptor and textile artist but is renowned mostly for her drawings. Her work was included in nearly every Baker Lake Annual Print Collection from 1971 to 1990. Kukiiyaut found her start in textiles, eventually experimenting with printmaking in the 1960s with the establishment of an arts and crafts program in Qamani’tuaq.
Kukiiyaut’s playful graphics are often depicting birds, shamans, animals, spirits and dreams. She combines bold, colourful figures into flowing, compact scenes. Her individual figures are generally a single hue or hues of a similar shade, and come together to create bright multi-coloured images. Kukiiyaut has credited the forms of clouds, wind and other fluid elements found in nature for inspiring her artistic style.
(Information provided by Inuit Art Foundation)
In June of 1974 Kukiityaut attended the Arctic Women’s Workshop organized by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada in Toronto. The workshop provided Kukiiyaut the opportunity to share her artistic knowledge while learning about the different techniques and materials used across varying communities. She was also a participant in Western University’s “Art and Cold Cash” project (2006), for which she drew pictures representative of the influences of the shift to a wage-based economy on Inuit communities. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions across Canada and internationally in France, Belgium and Israel. Kukiiyaut’s works are housed in major collections in Canada and the United States, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
(Information provided by Inuit Art Foundation)
