Inuit art

At Grey Dog Trading Company, Inuit art is one of our specialties. Co-owner Kent McManis makes regular trips to Canada, bringing back wonderful art and sculpture. This is an exciting and ever changing genre, employing many native artists, who are some of the friendliest people Kent has met. We hope you will enjoy the creativity, spirituality and good humor in the work as much as we do. The Inuit art in our gallery ranges from naturalistic, abstract and surrealistic animal forms to shamanic and mythological figures. Different geographic areas also focus on distinct styles and subject matter.

Nunavut, the Inuit controlled region which encompasses huge expanses of northern Canada, produces a vast selection of styles in Inuit art. In western Nunavut, the art centers on the shamanic and other-worldly, with transformational creatures, often exhibiting a wide-eyed appearance. In the central region of Nunavut, along the western shore of Hudson Bay, the art takes on simpler, geometric lines. Much of it has a modern art feeling. In the eastern Nunavut area, especially Baffin Island, the Inuit carvings are more naturalistic and representational, often with a highly polished suface and more detailing in the figures.

There is magical quality to Inuit art that is difficult to quantify. Artists are not only carvers and painters, but also storytellers, sharing a vignette of their world which can be beautiful, amusing, thought provoking, spiritual, surprising and always intriguing.

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