We curate the finest art created by Inuit artists from Kinngait (Cape Dorset). Founded in 2015, Nanooq Inuit Art’s roots stem from Westdale Gallery – a Hamilton, Ontario based fine art gallery that began to promote and distribute Inuit art in 1958.
Our mission is to inspire and motivate people to appreciate and collect Inuit art by educating, engaging and entertaining them about Inuit life and culture and about the wondrous arctic region in Canada’s north.
Photo Credit: PAPIARA TUKIKI, PHOTO COURTESY DORSET FINE ARTS. © WILLIAM RITCHIE
Nanooq Inuit Art Gallery works very closely with Dorset Fine Arts to curate the works of art we sell. Dorset Fine Arts was established in Toronto in 1978 as the wholesale marketing division of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative.
The co-operative is in Kinngait, Nunavut and is unique among the Arctic Co-operatives for its focus on the arts and the Canadian artists of the community.
An annual print collection from Kinngait (Cape Dorset) has been released since 1959.
Kinngait (Cape Dorset), a small hamlet of about 1400 people in the high Arctic, is one of Canada’s most successful and prolific art communities.
In the late 1950s, James Houston, an artist from Toronto, introduced the Inuit to relief printmaking. Thereafter, Inuit printmaking flourished leading to the development of The West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative's printmaking studio – Kinngait Studio in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. The has earned a worldwide reputation for the quality and originality of limited edition prints made by its member artists.
Nanooq is pleased to provide corporate art consulting. Whether you are looking to beautify a new office or beginning to build an office collection, Nanooq can work with you to select prints, carvings or drawings, to suit your space, image, theme and price range.
Inuit Art continues to grow in popularity as more exhibitions are featured at respected visual arts institutions around the world.
Learn about the heritage and history of Inuit art. Canadian art from the North has a rich culture, mainly centred in Cape Dorset, Nunavut.