Inuk Visual Artist Germaine Arnaktauyok Wins a 2021 GGArts Award

The Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts pays tribute to Germaine Arnaktauyok’s remarkable career and her efforts to maintain the vitality of Indigenous visual arts.

Six decades of Inuit imagination

Nunavut-born artist Germaine Arnaktauyok’s career has been outstanding. For 60 years, she has depicted the Arctic world’s oral traditions in a realistic style, bringing her subjects back to the human experience. Always active, she has traced her own visual language and made a remarkable contribution to Inuit art in the process. With her unique take on her culture and women, she is a true inspiration for up-and-coming artists.

Worldwide recognition

Arnaktauyok’s works have been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad. Her silkscreen print entitled The Drummer is reproduced on the two-dollar coin commemorating the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Her engravings, drawings and textile works depicting customs and legends are held in various private and public collections in Canada and abroad.