Description
This is a unique ceramic carving of Woman with Kudlik by Pierre Aupilardjuk from Rankin Inlet/Kangiqliniq
About Pierre Aupilardjuk
Pierre Aupilardjuk (1961-), E3-1315, Rankin Inlet/Kangiqliniq
Pierre Aupilardjuk has been with the Matchbox ceramics program, Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), since it began in the late eighties. From 1990 to 2000, he worked as the Assistant Manager, coordinating most aspects of production, and working closely with all of the artists of the Matchbox. He has also served as an instructor. Aupilardjuk maintains an active life on the land and much of his time is spent hunting to provide for the needs of his family.
His style of work represents his strong roots in a traditional aesthetic, which predominated in the days when the legendary figures of Inuit art were at work in the ceramics program, which was being run by Claude Grenier. Aupilardjuk’s father, Mariano, a brilliant and articulate spokesman on behalf of traditional knowledge and practice, is a renowned sculptor and elder whose artistic works and words are highly respected in Nunavut.
Aupilardjuk’s works are included in the ceramics collection of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center, Yellowknife; the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; as well as in private collections throughout North America. His work was included in several exhibitions, including Modern Echoes: Contemporary Inuit Ceramics and Sculpture at Native American Trading Company Gallery, Denver. In June 2001, Pierre was the Kivalliq representative at the Greenland Arts Festival, Nuuk. His work has also been shown at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2001, and the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, in the summer of 2006. (https://eskerfoundation.com/artist/pierre-aupilardjuk/)
About The Matchbox Gallery
Ours is a big country. Inevitably some of our cultural gems are off the beaten track. This page presents the Matchbox Gallery in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.
As an aside, I will be following up in more detail on the gallery and on Inuit ceramics in future pages: on the who, the how and the what.
Although Inuit prints, textiles and soapstone sculpture have long captured the southern imagination, more recent Inuit ceramics are making a strong impact. Much has been written about ceramic influences in Canada: Leach-Hamada, European and Asian ceramics, and the umbrellas of Modernism and Post-Modernism. But these artists and their clay works from Rankin Inlet come from a different legacy and creation mindset and deserve a wider awareness and appreciation as part of the Canadian ceramic mix.
The Matchbox Gallery revived ceramics in Rankin Inlet in 1990 after government sponsored efforts from 1964 to 1977 declined. This revival was spearheaded by Jim and Sue Shirley and, of course, the Inuit artists themselves. In 2002 the efforts were reinforced by the establishment of the Kangirqliniq Center for Arts and Learning.
Exhibitions of Rankin Inlet ceramics have been held in such major locations as the Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, and more recently, the Art Gallery of Burlington.
Visit the Matchbox Gallery website and click on the Permanent Collections link to the right for images, in three ceramic groupings, that are at the same time both familiar and unfamiliar, and for information on the artists themselves. (from: https://studioceramicscanada.com/collectors-and-collections/the-matchbox-gallery-and-rankin-inlet-inuit-ceramics/)
Woman with Kudlik by Pierre Aupilardjuk is a most unique piece of Inuit Art.
