'Their work is still here even though they're not': Inuit artist celebrates family legacy

When Ottawa-based multidisciplinary artist Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona was awarded a creative research residency with the Art Gallery of Guelph, she was eager to look through the gallery's collection for inspiration. 

In the archives, she found something very close to home.

"They have a huge collection of art from really big names … and they also have work by my great-grandmother Jessie Oonark and my grandmother Victoria Mamnguqsualuk."

Oonark was a major Inuit artist known for inventive and colourful work. Mamnguqsualuk, who died in 2016 and whose works have appeared in nearly 100 exhibitions in Canada and internationally, shared Kabloona's love of art with her from the start.

Kabloona has fond memories of many childhood visits to Baker Lake, Nunavut, where the two of them would spend time together.

"She was at home a lot, working on her artwork," said Kabloona. "She would make me a parka if I asked her to.

"She only spoke Inuktitut and I only spoke English, so we didn't have very in-depth conversations. But I did spend a lot of time with her."

Kabloona remembers how her grandmother's art was "everywhere in her home" — even piled up on top of the freezer — and how eager she was to share it.

But Kabloona had no idea she would find her family's work at the Art Gallery of Guelph, and was delighted to rediscover the prints, sketchbooks and wall hangings she believes may have been donated to the gallery by a collector. 

"It was incredible," she said. "It was amazing. A lot of the pieces, I hadn't seen before. 

"There was a really big piece — maybe six feet by six feet — that was completely embroidered with a woman who was half-caribou. That was stunning."

In her art practice, Kabloona was already working on pieces that explored her family's creative legacy, so finding this unexpected collection was a moving experience.

"Seeing that their work is still here even though they're not, and now I get to see what they were doing and create new pieces, is really important to their legacy," she said. 

As part of Kabloona's residency, she is creating a new work for the upcoming exhibition "Qautamaat," which will open at the gallery on April 7, 2022.