FLOE EDGE: CONTEMPORARY ART AND COLLABORATIONS FROM NUNAVUT

In the MAIN Gallery and MFMG FLOE EDGE: CONTEMPORARY ART AND COLLABORATIONS FROM NUNAVUT September 8 – October 14, 2017 Opening Reception: Friday September 8 at 8pm Shuvinai Ashoona, Nicole Camphaug, Igah Hainnu, Niore Iqalukjuak, Qavavau Manumie, Sarah McNair-Landry, Raven Chacon, Danny Osborne, PA System (Alexa Hatanaka and Patrick Thompson), Erik Boomer, Eric McNair-Landry, Mona Nester, Mathew Nuqingaq, Nala Peter, Jamasie Pitseolak, Tim Pitsiulak, Ningeokuluk Teevee, Lavinia Van Heuvelen Curator: Kathleen Nicholls Artistic Director: Stefan St-Laurent Every spring, the dark open waters of the Arctic Ocean meet the frozen sea ice along a line called the floe edge. Sometimes also called “the line of life,” the floe edge forms a dynamic ecosystem where Arctic sea and land mammals, shorebirds, and humans congregate around large, flat, floating chunks of sea ice (floes) that move with the tide and melt with the changing temperatures. This “edge” (or sinaa in Inuktitut, the Inuit language) is constantly forming and re-forming, an active site that takes its name and shape not from fixity but from continuous movement. The floe edge is an apt metaphor for the work of the artists presented in this exhibition, who—like the free-moving ice floes—have remarkably active and thoroughly intersectional practices that integrate personal, cultural, and historical narratives. Each one of them has talents spanning multiple disciplines, yet despite their incredibly varied and productive output, very few work solely as artists. Although all are recognized as artists who regularly show or sell their artworks, art is only one of the ways in which they contribute to and engage in their communities: they work as everything from public servants to entrepreneurs to members of cooperative print shops. They live as artists, activists, mothers, fathers, students, teachers, hunters, and adventurers. These multivalent identities—artist as community member and community member as artist—create cohesive and integrated work, as in Niore Iqalukjuak’s photographic practice documenting his community, local landscapes, Arctic wildlife, friends, and family. Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery acknowledges the support, throughout the year, of our friends, volunteers, community and all our relations, NCI FM, Wawanesa Insurance, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, Southwood Plywood Sales Ltd. (Pembina Hwy location) and Axeneo7 and the Nunavut Arts and Craft Association.