Voices from the Arctic: Contemporary Inuit Art

Visitors enjoy a guided tour of Voices from the Arctic: Contemporary Inuit Art on the opening day, Feb. 22.

Inuit artists on the northernmost edge of the continent create distinctive, striking artworks reflecting their lives and experiences. You can see more than 80 Inuit artworks in a new exhibition at the Eiteljorg, V oices from the Arctic: Contemporary Inuit Art.

Featuring works from the Eiteljorg’s permanent collections, works on loan from collectors from the Inuit Art Society such as Thalia Nicas and Lou Jungheim and a piece gifted by Joan Perelman, Voices from the Arctic will educate and inspire visitors about a region of the world most people will never visit.

Inuit communities are found in northern Canada (from which all the works in this exhibit originate), as well as in Alaska, Greenland and Russia. In the far north where wood is scarce, Inuit artists always have carved sculptures from the mediums available, such as local soapstone and steatite stone, as well as caribou antlers and whalebone. Inuit works communicate stories about people and families, interactions with animals during subsistence hunting of seals, and supernatural beings.

Beginning in the late 1950s to early 1960s, Inuit artists quickly adapted printmaking as another major regional art form, including intricately cutting stone surfaces from which prints could be inked by hand. A number of Arctic communities now are home to art cooperatives, to encourage stone-carving and printmaking as forms of both cultural revitalization and economic development. The most prominent of these is in Kinngait (previously known as Cape Dorset) on Baffin Island in the Hudson Bay, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Inuit prints with delicate details, such as the feathered textures of plumage of Arctic birds, are prized by collectors of Inuit art — as are stone sculptures and textiles.

Voices from the Arctic spotlights contemporary sculptures and prints from the 1960s to today. Respected Inuit artists such as Mattiusie Iyaituk (b. 1950), Kenojuak Ashevak (1927-2013), David Ruben Piqtoukun (b. 1950) and others are represented. Some pieces in the exhibit convey artists’ expressions of spiritual beliefs or highlight daily scenes of work and family life; others embody a sense of humor.

Societal changes inflicted by settler-colonial encroachment are reflected in Inuit art and in the technologies and techniques artists use to render their works. In recent decades, Inuit people have been on the front lines of climate change; the melting polar sea ice has altered animal migration patterns and made polar bears a threatened species. Resulting environmental impact on their communities is a subject for Inuit artists as well.

If you have not yet experienced Inuit art, Voices from the Arctic is a real treat, highlighting the boundless creativity, imagination and warmth of artists from one of the coldest places on earth. The exhibition opened with a gallery tour and talk Feb. 22 at the Eiteljorg and continues more than a year, through April 5, 2026. Public programs with Inuit art, culture and music are planned later in 2025. On April 26-27, plan to attend a trunk show where you can purchase fascinating Inuit art.