
Worlds on Paper: Drawings from Kinngait
March 8 – August 24, 2025
The recent digitization of the Kinngait Drawings Archive—90,000 works strong and held by the McMichael for more than three decades—has allowed unprecedented curatorial access to the origins of this now world-renowned graphic tradition.
Curated by Emily Laurent Henderson, Associate Curator, Indigenous Arts and Culture at McMichael, this once-in-a-generation exhibition of more than 200 works will foreground the cultural continuities of life in Kinngait in the face of dramatic societal change over more than five decades. The adaptability and resilience of this unique community has been documented in works that depict intergenerational knowledge transfer, community building, and boundless imagination.
This exhibition will reveal overlooked bodies of work by some of the country’s most beloved artists including Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitseolak Ashoona, Kananginak Pootoogook, and Pudlo Pudlat as well as introduce audiences to hitherto unknown artists whose work was suppressed by the aims of the print program that prioritized the tastes of settler markets in the South.
Artists
The exhibition includes the work of 48 artists, some well-known and others nearly unknown.
Inuit artists of the Cape Dorset co-operative, 1961. From left, top row: Napachie Pootoogook, Pudlo Pudlat; bottom row: Egevadluq Ragee, Kenojuak Ashevak, Lucy Qinnuayuak, Pitseolak Ashoona, Kiakshuk, Parr. Photograph by B. Korda.
Anirnik Oshuitoq | Kingmeata Etidlooie | Peter Pitseolak |
Aoudla Pudlat | Kunu | Pitaloosie Saila |
Aoudlaluk Qayuaryuk | Lucy Qinnuayuak | Pitseolak Ashoona |
Atamik Tukikie | Lukta Qiatsuk | Pudlo Pudlat |
Egevadluq Ragee | Sheouak Petaulassie | Qabaroak Qatsiya |
Elisapee Nungusuituq | Mary Pudlat | Qaunaq Mikkigak |
Etidlooie Etidlooie | Mayoreak Ashoona | Qavavau Manumie |
Etulu Etidlui | Napachie Pootoogook | Sharni Pootoogook |
Innukjuakju Pudlat | Natsivaar | Sheouak Petaulassie |
Johnniebo Ashevak | Ningeeuga Oshuitoq | Sorosiluto Ashoona |
Kakulu Sagiatuk | Oshutsiak Pudlat | Sorosoluto Onalik |
Kananginak Pootoogook | Oviloo Tunnillie | Tikitu Qinnuayuak |
Keeleemeeoomee Samualie | Parr | Tye Adla |
Kenojuak Ashevak | Paunichea | Ulayu Pingwartok |
Kiawak Ashoona | Pauta Saila |
About the Exhibition Curator
Emily Laurent Henderson is an Inuk curator, arts writer and poet with a practice rooted in Indigenous creative sovereignty.
Henderson was the first full-time Inuk editor at the legacy publication the Inuit Art Quarterly, and in 2019 co-led a special issue of the magazine that focused on the Inuit artist collective Isuma who represented Canada at the 58th Venice Biennale the same year.
A former member of the Indigenous and Canadian art curatorial team at the Art Gallery of Ontario, her articles and commentary have been featured in the Inuit Art Quarterly, Inuktitut Magazine, C Magazine, Azure, Studio Magazine, and other national titles.
In 2024 her book of poetry Hold Steady My Vision was published by Print Studio Guelph.
Upcoming Events
Presenting Sponsors
Rand and Lynda Lomas
Terry West and Mark Defend
Lead Publication Sponsors
Bredt/Cameron Indigenous Art Curatorial Fund
Peter Goring
Goring Family Foundation
Generously Supported by
Erla Boyer and Patti Socha
Gallery Indigena/Inukshuk, Vancouver
Erla Boyer and Doug Socha
Gallery Indigena, Stratford
Joan Bush and Farsad Kiani
Chantelle Cseh
Gloria and Seymour Epstein
Keith Evans
First Arts
Sandra Forbes
Gallery Gevik
Elizabeth Grace and Susan Vella
Dr. Sherrill Grace O.C. and in memory
of the late Dr. John Grace O.C.
Erik Haites
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Julie Jai and David Trick
Alice and Ted Kernaghan
Hesty Leibtag and Terry Verk
Maureen Littlejohn
Madrona Gallery
Kathryn Minard
Alexandria Pike
Sarah Powell
Jennifer Prieto
Poonam Puri and Elian Terner
Robert Kardosh Gallery
Franziska Ruf
Melanie Shishler
Joyce and Fred Sparling
Allan Stitt and Lisa Lewis
Susan Wortzman and Glenn Smith