Ulayu Pingwartok

Along with being exhibited in Cape Dorset Graphics, Pingwartok was a part of many group exhibitions in Canada and the United States, including “The Inuit Print.” She had a solo show, “Ulayu,” that toured from 1982-1984. Her work is collected by the National Gallery of Canada, Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

“Pingwartok produced over seven hundred drawings in her life, and thirty of them were translated into prints for ten annual Cape Dorset collections between 1965 and 1979.” Her early prints were portraits of birds, focusing on precise depiction of feather. She later concentrated in women’s activities on a traditional camp life and shelter such as tents and igloos.

Cape Dorset Graphics (annual collection and illustrated catalogue) 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979

Ulayu Pingwartok (1904 – 1978) was a Canadian Inuk artist known for drawings of domestic scenes and nature.

Pingwartok was born on April 7, 1904, in Lake Harbour (Kimmirut) on southwestern Baffin Island in the Northwest Territories, now Nunavut. She moved into the settlement of Cape Dorset in 1959 where she started to draw and was encouraged to create drawings for the annual print collections.