Tony Anguhalluq, a 37-year-old Baker Lake resident, has emerged as a significant Inuit artist. The adopted son of Luke Anguhadluq (1895-1982) and Marion Tuu’luq (1910-2002), Anguhalluq builds on traditions pioneered by his artist parents, but his work differs significantly in its treatment of subject matter and perspective by employing unique combinations of pictorial and orthographic views.
Following the success of his sold-out show at Marion Scott last spring, the new exhibition showcases both pencil crayon drawings on paper and Anguhalluq’s idiosyncratic stone sculptural pieces. His images feature contemporary Inuit people using modern fishing rods and nets, motorized boats, skidoos and rifles as they live, work and hunt on the rocky terrain and unforgiving waters of the far north. Bird’s eye views, abstractly patterned land formations, skewed silhouettes and overlapping perspectives give his work a startling edge not often found in either western or Inuit art. Solid masses of colour and distinctive contour lines recall Japanese woodblock prints, while the top to bottom readings are reminiscent of scroll-like Persian miniatures.
Anguhalluq has drawings in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario (in the Sarick Inuit Art Collection) and four of his drawings were recently selected for inclusion in the 13th Biennial of Naive and Marginal Art in Serbia, October 2007. In the spring of 2006, he was one of four artists featured in Landscape: Contemporary Inuit Drawings, the Marion Scott Gallery’s groundbreaking exhibition devoted to northern landscape art. The new exhibit will feature over 30 of Anguhalluq’s striking landscapes.
www.marionscottgallery.com
