6.28.2006
Annie Pootoogook Exhibit Marks Changes
This CBC photo essay features the work of Inuit artist Annie Pootoogook, who will be the first ever Inuit artist featured at the Power Plant, Canada's "pre-eminent venue for contemporary art." Her work features a fascinating blend of simplicity and saavy, somehow managing to convey intense emotions and realities through relatively sparse, almost childlike drawings. According to the article, one of her biggest innovations is the way that she "diverges from many of her peers, who frequently stick to cliché forms and symbols in order to please southern buyers." Her work kind of reminds me of Bill Barminski's which I featured a few days ago, but Pootoogook's employs a much subtler, less distancing style of irony. Her subjects are endearing at the same time they're a bit silly.
