(Image: “Owl's Overture” by Kenojuak Ashevak)

On October 15th Kennebunkport, Maine.

(Kennebunkport, ME) Home & Away Gallery of Kennebunkport is pleased to be one of only four galleries in the US, and the only gallery in New England to participate in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection. Cape Dorset’s prints are highly regarded for their bold imagery and strong colors, and are sought by collectors around the world. The prints in this year's collection vary from classic Inuit images to striking contemporary work.

The print shop at Cape Dorset, in Arctic Canada, operated by the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, has been in operation since 1959 – a remarkable achievement for a remote community with a population of around 1,200. The workshop is still going strong, with some of the original artists still participating, and new artists joining the ranks to add a fresh and contemporary artistic perspective. This year's collection of 34 images features four sugar lift prints. To produce these prints, the artists squirt a sugary syrup from a ketchup bottle to create thick, organic black lines. The black lines provide a strong framework for colors that were hand painted by two artists: Canadian Harold Klunder and Beatriz Sobrado Sámano from Spain. The hand coloring creates enough variation that, in effect, there are fifty unique prints.

“Owl's Overture,” by 84 year old matriarch artist Kenojuak Ashevak, is a striking sugar lift print featuring as a central figure an owl that is mostly black and white. The gray background creates a strong contrast with the brightly colored seal and two birds that surround the welcoming owl. Overall, this is a strong, colorful composition. “Young Bird In Flight” and “Three Caribou” complete Ashevak's trio of sugar lift prints.

(Image: “Kiviuk and the Bear” by Ningeokuluk Teevee)

Following the trend of recent years, Ningeokuluk Teevee tops all other artists with ten prints in the 2010 collection. Born in 1963, Teevee began drawing around seven years ago. Every year we see an increase in her confidence, as she creates bold and diverse drawings with a variety of themes. In keeping with Teevee's artistic diversity, her prints range from the bright and graphic “Kiviuk and the Bear” to the highly patterned “Owl Eyes,” printed on very thin brown paper, to the whimsical “Blue Walrus,” decked out in a dress with a floral patterned collar.

(Image: “Drum Song” by Kananginak Pootoogook)

Kananginak Pootoogook, one of the original Cape Dorset graphic artists, created eight prints for the collection. Most of the prints follow his themes of wildlife or ocean vessels, but “Drum Song” breaks the mold with a circular composition of three white bears in a black drum, surrounded by vivid green, yellow, and lilac tones.

Other unusual prints include Jutai Toonoo's “Sphere” whose surface is entirely covered by stick figures in various poses; Suvinai Ashoona's self-explanatory “Handstand,” with orange and blue complementary colors floating on a white background; and Kavavaow Mannomee's “Stiletto,” depicting a human figure embracing a giant stiletto shoe, three times its size.

The 2010 Cape Dorset print collection can currently be viewed at the Home & Away Gallery in Kennebunkport or online by clicking here. The prints will be released for sale on Friday, October 15th at 11:00 am, but can be reserved now. In addition, printed catalogs are also available for purchase at the gallery. Home & Away Gallery is open Friday through Monday from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm. For more information on Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection, please contact gallery director David Shultz by calling 207 967-2122 or via email at david@homeandawaygallery.com.

About Home and Away Gallery
Home & Away Gallery of Kennebunkport is known for its remarkable and surprising Arctic and Indian arts collection that is unparalleled in New England. Art work encompasses the cultures of the Inuit (Canada), Eskimo (Alaska) and American Indian (Maine, Southwest and Plains). Home & Away specializes in museum-quality work from around North America for the seasoned collector, as well as for those just beginning to collect. Owners David and Ann Shultz have admired, collected and lived with various kinds of art from different countries and cultures for over thirty years. As they travel across North America, they choose art for the gallery using the same buying criteria that they use for their private collection, which focuses on art that “asks for our attention.” Thus, each piece represented by the gallery has something to recommend it, whether it be a sophisticated aesthetic sense or an evocative image of distant lands, people and traditions.

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