Tim Pitsiulak: Cape Dorset

Tim Pitsiulak: Cape Dorset

Tim Pitsiulak (1967-2016) - Artist Biography

Tim Pitsiulak was a Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU-based artist who worked primarily in drawing and printmaking. He was born in Kimmirut, NU and began drawing as a child. Though he experimented with sculpture and trained in making jewellery at Arctic College he excelled in graphic arts. His first print Caribou Migration (2005) was released in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection in 2005 only a few years after moving to Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU. The detailed print showing a family of caribou bounding across the page marked the beginning of a successful career in the medium.

Pitsiulak made drawings of his daily experiences choosing subjects that strongly reflected his interests as an Inuk, an artist and an active hunter [1]. Across these roles Pitsiulak demonstrated a deep respect for, and connection to, the land and beings around him, which he communicated through his work. Though he is undeniably one of the most successful print artists in recent years, Pitsiulak’s drawings have garnered him the most acclaim. Throughout the course of his career he made detailed and memorable works often sourced from his own photographs. Pitsiulak’s deep affection for his community and his place within it was borne out again and again in his tender and honest depictions of life in Kinngait, whether of sweeping landscapes or the heavy, complex machinery necessary to build permanent structures in the unforgiving tundra.

Pitsiulak’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across North America and has been collected widely by both public institutions and private collectors. His work sits in the public collection of institutions such as the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON and the Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, QC. Pitsiulak has appeared numerous times in the Inuit Art Quarterly including having his work on the cover of the Fall 2008 and Spring 2019 issues.

Key Exhibition:
2018: Tunirrusiangit: Kenjojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON

Public Collections:
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa ON
Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, QC