Kablusiak: Qiniqtuaq exhibition opening
Solo exhibition by Kablusiak
In partnership with FD13 residency for the arts
Opening reception
Thu, Jan 26, 5:30-7:30 pm
Outside at Bockley Gallery
Exhibition dates: Jan 26-Feb 5
Installation view, Qiniqtuaq (2019). Image courtesy Kablusiak and Esker Foundation.
Qiniqtuaq (Kee-nick-dwak) means searching or looking in the Sallirmiut dialect of Inuvialuktun. Viewable from the outside looking in, the exhibition Qiniqtuaq invites a curious and peeping gaze, inviting viewer participation in the ongoing histories of the who’s who of looking and being looked at. Kablusiak has often engaged the trope of the ghost as a device by which they wryly articulate a sense of their diasporic identity as an urban Inuk—the ghost asks for acknowledgement while controlling access to what is behind it. As we press our faces against the glass of the redacted gallery windows to peer through the caricature of ghostly eyeholes—some of which are cut high, too high for human eyes—we are implicated in acknowledging Inuit presence behind the curtain; one that resists the notion of a culture frozen in time.
Opening reception: Thu, Jan 26, 5:30 pm
Exhibition dates: Jan 26–Feb 5, 2023 (Tue-Sat, 12 pm–8 pm) at Bockley Gallery
About Kablusiak
As a multidisciplinary Inuvialuk artist and curator, Kablusiak seeks to demystify Inuit art and create space for diverse Inuit-led representation. Their artistic practice uses humor and Inuk ingenuity to engage materials such as lingerie, Sharpies, bed sheets, felt, acrylic paint, and words to invite empathy and solidarity to explore diasporic cultural displacement, family and community ties, and impacts of colonization on Inuit gender and sexuality expressions, health and wellbeing, and the everyday. Kablusiak’s recent and upcoming exhibitions include Qiniqtuaq, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis (2023), Up Front, Onsite Gallery, OCADU, Toronto (2022), After Care, Mitchell Gallery, MacEwan University, Edmonton (2022), and ublaak tikiyuak, artspeak, Vancouver, BC (2020). Along with Atautchikun | wâhkôtamowin, Remai Modern, Saskatchewan (2021-22), their recent co-curatorial work includes INUA, the inaugural exhibition of 90 artists working across Inuit Nunangat and beyond at Qaumajuq, the Inuit Art Center, Winnipeg Art Gallery (2021-22). Kablusiak is based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary AB).
FD13 residency for the arts invites national and international artists to Minnesota to create new, experimental work and present it live.
Bockley Gallery is a contemporary art venue and curatorial practice based in Minneapolis since 1984. The gallery offers an intimate experience with art through a calendar of on-site programming, while its outreach to local, national and international museums and biennales expands the dialogue around what it believes to be the most relevant ideas in art today.
