Trotter&Sholer, in collaboration with the West Baffin Co-operative and Kinngait Studios, is pleased to present Kinngait: Generations, a landmark group exhibition of contemporary Inuit art at Booth A103 during the 2025 edition of NADA New York. Bringing together artists from across multiple generations of the storied Kinngait (Cape Dorset) artistic community, the exhibition highlights the evolving visions of individual artists and the intergenerational dialogue that continues to define Inuit art today.
Kinngait: Generations features new and historical works by eleven artists exploring the tensions and harmonies between tradition and change, myth and modernity, subsistence and survival: Kudluajuk Ashoona, Shuvinai Ashoona, Kellypalik Etidloie, Adamie Mathewsie, Itee Pootoogook, Pudlo Pudlat, Pitseolak Qimirpik, Toonoo Sharky, Ooloosie Saila, Padloo Samayualie, and Nicotye Samyualie. Drawing from the world-renowned archives and ongoing practices of Kinngait Studios, this presentation illuminates the layered narratives of Inuit identity, environment, and transformation.
Throughout the exhibition, a profound sense of place is made visible in depictions of everyday life: domestic interiors, traditional tools, family gatherings, and village scenes are rendered with careful intimacy, capturing both personal experiences and broader cultural continuities. Alongside this, artists explore spiritual and ecological relationships to the land—invoking animals, seasons, and mythological beings as part of an enduring worldview centered on subsistence and reciprocity.
Layered into these perspectives are subtle and at times playful engagements with contemporary material culture, where southern imports such as snowmobiles, packaged foods, airplanes, and MP3 players appear as symbols of both disruption and adaptation—markers of cultural hybridity within a rapidly changing Arctic. These elements, approached with curiosity, humor, and sometimes critique, illustrate how Inuit artists navigate and reinterpret modernity from within their own contexts.
A cornerstone of the exhibition is a selection of works by Pudlo Pudlat (1916–1992), a trailblazing figure in Inuit art whose career marked a shift toward embracing and documenting modern influences in the Arctic. His playful yet poignant illustrations of life in the North helped expand the possibilities of Inuit representation, demonstrating a visionary sensibility that remains strikingly relevant. His legacy threads through the younger artists’ works—many of whom are direct descendants or artistic inheritors of his approach—positioning him not only as a pioneer, but as a continued presence in the living fabric of Inuit creativity.
Meanwhile, the precise, atmospheric drawings of Itee Pootoogook (1951–2014) offer a quieter, more contemplative approach. His modernist restraint and sharp observational eye provide a counterpoint to Pudlat’s exuberance, emphasizing the architectural and emotional textures of Arctic life. Together, these two artists provide crucial context and continuity for understanding the varied approaches to memory, place, and transformation explored by artists living and working in Kinngait today.
Since its founding in 1959, Kinngait Studios, operated by the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, has fostered one of North America’s most important art movements, and continues to be a vital site of cultural production and innovation. With Kinngait: Generations, Trotter&Sholer offers a platform for renewed engagement with this extraordinary community, and each of the individual artists who continue to shape and reshape its world-renowned artistic history.
NADA New York 2025 presents a timely opportunity to reconsider the global position of Inuit art—its legacies, challenges, and radical beauty—in the broader conversation of contemporary art.