Mattiusi Iyaituk
Various Regions :: Inuit Sculpture
The Visitors and the Visited
The Visitors and the Visited, 2001
serpentine, caribou antler, musk-ox hair, 19½" × 21" × 7"
Throat Singingsold
Throat Singing, 2001
serpentine, caribou antler, musk-ox hair, sinew, 24" × 16" × 7"
Wind From Behindsold
Wind From Behind, 2001
serpentine, caribou antler, musk-ox hair, sinew, 28½" × 14" × 8"

Slideshow

Mattiusi Iyaituk – Artist Biography

Mattisui Iyaituk

Mattiusi Iyaituk was born in 1950 in Kikitajuar, near Akulivik, Quebec, Canada. His family moved to Ivujivik when he was four years old. A self-taught artist, Iyaituk began carving at the age of fifteen after being inspired by other artists such as his father and older brother. He held various jobs, including a position with the Quebec Provincial Police, until he began carving full-time in 1979. Since then, Iyaituk had adopted an abstract style that reduces details to their most simplistic form. Typically, his highly evocative works are a combination of different types of stone, set off with muskox hair and inlaid caribou antler and whale bone. Iyaituk has stated that he feels his artwork bridges different worlds - the abstract forms are considered by many to be in the modernist tradition, combined with the more traditional Inuit technique of inlaying.

In 1991, Iyaituk became the director of the Inuit Art Foundation. He has travelled extensively as an art consultant, including accompanying the exhibition Transitions: Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art to Taiwan in 1999. He has also exhibited in Europe, and the United States.

“

I met Mattiusi in 1983. His great smile and sense of humour impressed me instantly and, after seeing his sculptures, I did not hesitate in offering him a solo show at Gallery Phillip. Many pieces sold before the opening due to their tremendous impact. His work is radically different from other Inuit carvers — they emanate a powerful energy.

In his recent work, Mattiusi experiments with a variety of materials — stone is often combined with muskox hair or antler to create complex figures with distinct facial expressions. The use of antler suggests the human form while the faces are stylized and exaggerated, lending a dramatic effect to the work. Mattiusi's evocative titles and the distinct mixture of the expressive and the simple make him a worthy successor to such masters as Henry Moore.

 ”
— Phillip Gevik, Director

Gallery Phillip — info@gevik.com — Tel: 416-447-1301

Copyright ©1999-2020 Gallery Phillip. All Rights Reserved.

Daphne OdjigDaphne Odjig, Canadian Indigenous Artist and Icon Dies at 97. Click here for more details.

Odjig is frequently referred to as the "Grandmother of Indigenous Art." She has been the recipient of many awards, honours and recognitions for her works, to name a few: The Order of Canada, the Governor General's Award, and eight Honorary Doctorates. Her works have been shown in the National Gallery of Canada, The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Art Gallery of Ontario.


She established the first native-run fine art print house in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1971. Known as 'Odjig Indian Prints,' this print house was so successful that it evolved into an Indigenous gallery space in 1974, called the New Warehouse Gallery, run by Odjig and her husband, Chester Beavon. She was also a founding member of the Indian Group of Seven. This artistic group's purpose was to promote Contemporary Indigenous art and artists.

Alex JanvierAlex Janvier's major retrospective, "Alex Janvier: Modern Indigenous Master" is now open at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario until January 21st, 2018. Afterwards, it will travel to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary.

This exhibition was recently on display at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina. Alex Janvier is one of Canada's most acclaimed contemporary artists. His career of sixty-five years has yielded thousands of paintings, and more than twenty-five murals and public commissions. (Photo credit: Kim Griffiths)

Rita LetendreGallery Gevik congratulates renowned Canadian and International abstract painter, Rita Letendre, on her first major museum retrospective exhibition outside of Québec. Rita Letendre: Fire and Light is now open until September 17, 2017 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

This exhibition, which covers Letendre's career from the 1960's to 2000's, is co-curated by Wanda Nanibush and Georgiana Uhlyarik. The retrospective features nearly forty large-scale paintings drawn from major national public and private collections.

Letendre was widely exhibited with the artistic groups, Les Automatistes and Les Plasticiens. She has received the Governor General's Award in Visual Arts, the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas, and the Orders of Canada, Ontario and Québec. Click here for more details.