Kavavaow Mannomee

Kavavaow Mannomee

Kavavaow Mannomee - Artist Biography

“I like to draw animals, and images of people, sometimes combined. I enjoy the animals and the land, and I take what I see there to my drawings.”

- Qavavau Manumie

Qavavau was born in Brandon, Manitoba in 1958 where his mother, Paunichea, was hospitalized for treatment of tuberculosis. He returned to Cape Dorset as a very young child and has lived there since.

Qavavau has demonstrated a range of stylistic abilities over the years - from the very literal to the more expressive. His work is idiosyncratic and often amusing in his depictions of Inuit legends and mythology, Arctic wildlife and contemporary aspects of Inuit life

Qavavau is the latest among the second generation to attract critical acclaim from the contemporary arts audience in the south. He and Shuvinai Ashoona have been profiled, along with Nick Sikkuark of Gjoa Haven, in the Winnipeg-based arts magazine, Border Crossings. He traveled to Toronto in June of 2008 for his first solo exhibition of original drawings, and in 2009 to Vancouver for another exhibition featuring his contemporary work. He was invited to attend an opening of this work in Victoria in the fall of 2012.

For several years Qavavau has worked for the Kinngait Studios as a printmaker - first in the lithography studio and more recently in the stonecut studio. He is an accomplished and precise printmaker who enjoys the opportunity to demonstrate printmaking techniques to young artists and visitors to the studio.

Qavavau lives with his wife and son Peter in Cape Dorset.

Photo: J. Riley, c/o Dorset Fine Arts
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
April- May 1993 Original Drawings by Kavavaow Mannomee of Cape Dorset
The Issacs/Innuit Gallery Toronto, Ontario
April – May 1994 Kavavaow Mannomee – Original Drawings The Albers Gallery of Inuit Art, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
October – November 2003 Kavavaow Mannomee: Drawings The Albers Gallery
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
Fall 2005 Birds and Spirits: Drawings by Kavavaow Mannomee The Albers Gallery
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
June 2008 Kavavau Manumee: A Dialogue Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
(In conjunction with the World Washi Summit)
June – July, 2009 Kavavau Manumee Drawings Marion Scott Gallery Vancouver, British Columbia
December 2015 – January 2016 Cold Dream: Drawings by Qavavau Manumee
Marion Scott Gallery Vancouver, British Columbia
January – March, 2020 A Selection of Qavavau Manumie Drawings Pierre-Francois Oulette Art Contemporain Montreal, Quebec
November 2020 – January 2021 Qavavau Manumee: Icons & Constellations
Marion Scott Gallery Vancouver, British Columbia

COLLECTIONS:
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, Quebec
Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection 1959 – 1999, Cape Dorset, NU Government of Nunavut
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife, NWT
Doris McCarthy Gallery (University of Toronto Scarborough), ON