Artists
Katherine Takpannie
Almost every aspect of Inuit life has a belief attached to it: a way of showing people how to honour their values. As a self taught emerging photographer, Katherine Takpannie honours her Inuit worldview through her lens; one that is strongly grounded in social accountability and unity. To her, photography is the best medium to reclaim her identity and explore her experiences as an urban Inuk. Takpannie has studied her history, culture and language, and uses her knowledge to seamlessly convey her vision and emotion. Takpannie’s visual language expands out from lush landscapes, to intimate self portraits, and gritty urban scenes. Takpannie’s artistic practice also focuses on revealing the complexities and nuances of urban Inuit life, which includes capturing performative and political gestures of contemporary issues that Indigenous Canadians face daily. Takpannie aims to help raise awareness, and bring forth important conversations through her work.
Takpannie’s photographs have been exhibited nationally and are published in several art magazines. She has recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq, Biennale d’art contemporain autochtone (BACA), City of Ottawa Art Collection, Art Gallery of Guelph, PAMA Peel Art Gallery + Museum, and the Olga Korper Gallery Inc. Katherine’s photograph was on the cover of Inuit Art Quarterly’s issue Colour: Chromatic North, which won the Grand Prix at the 2023 National Magazine Award. Her photographs have also been featured in Canadian Geographic, Inuktitut magazine and Canadian Wildlife Magazine. In 2020, she received the New Generation Photography Award from the National Gallery of Canada.