Duffy is well-known for her work with jewellery, textiles, and pop art concepts. She is a very dexterous and agile in artist, inspired by the things she collects: baleen, beluga vertebrae, antler, and other natural materials. Over the last year or so, Duffy has delved further into her work with pop art, taking recognizable objects and transforming them through her own unique lens. We can expect a lot of bright colours and fun interpretations in the upcoming exhibition, Gasoline Rainbows.
The Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award is a biennial prize organized by the Inuit Art Foundation, which celebrates mid-career Inuit artists and other important projects to connect Inuit artists with global audiences and with each other. The award recognizes a shortlist of five artists who each receive $5,000 and a prize winner who receives $20,000. The winning artist receives a solo exhibition at WAG-Qaumajuq, an accompanying exhibition publication, and WAG-Qaumajuq will acquire an artwork from the winning artist for its permanent collection. The prize will also include an artist-in-residency program, hosted at WAG-Qaumajuq.
Artist 
Tarralik Duffy
1979
Tarralik Duffy is an Inuk artist and writer from Salliq (Coral Harbour), Nunavut currently based in Saskatoon. Duffy’s creative work celebrates distinctly Inuit experiences, often infused with a dose of humour and pop culture. She works across media, regularly incorporating drawing, photography, sculpture, textiles, printmaking, and digital medias into her practice. Her work juxtaposes Inuit culture, of the past and present, with pop art aesthetics and ideas. She often reproduces iconic packaged foods that circulate across the north, updated with Inuktitut. These works not only comment on food security in Inuit communities, but also Inuit food sovereignty, an important aspect of Inuit culture that has persisted through colonization. Other works focus on storytelling and making epic the stories and figures who have greatly impacted her and other Inuit. In 2012 Duffy founded the brand Ugly Fish, which became popular across the north for its modern jewellery made from bone and graphic printed clothing. Duffy is also a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Her short stories have won prizes and have been published and her writing on Inuit artists has offered an important perspective on Inuit art from an Inuk perspective. Her work has been featured on the cover of Inuit Art Quarterly magazine and in exhibitions across Canada. She was the recipient of the 2021 Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award and participated in the Nordic Lab at SAW Gallery in Ottawa. She currently has two exhibitions running, Let’s go Quickstop at the Art Gallery of Ontario and Gasoline Rainbows at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
In the News
Eye on the Arctic: Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq showcases works by multimedia artist Tarralik Duffy, September 19, 2023
Winnipeg Free Press: Fuelled by Memories, September 21, 2023
Nunavut News: Nunavut artist launches solo exhibition at Winnipeg Art Gallery, September 29, 2023
Galleries West: Tarralik Duffy: An Inuit take on Pop Art, October 4, 2023
CBC Radio One: Tarralik Duffy, November 23, 2023
Stories
To plan your visit, check out wag.ca/visit.
