West Baffin Cooperative is pleased to celebrate the participation of Kinngait artist Qavavau Manumie at the Busan Biennale curated by Haeju Kim. Manumie is one of the Canadian artists who redefine the paradigm of Canadian contemporary art through his ink and colored pencil drawings that offer a contemporary perspective on Arctic wildlife, Inuit myths and legends, and the lives of Inuit people. Focusing on climate change as a phenomenon that is having an acute impact on cities around the world – including the one in which he lives – he presents harmonious portraits of real-life natural landscape based on his own artistic imagination and his humorous and novel perspective.

“The exhibition will put forward a stance to picture how the stories of backstreets in Busan are intersected and connected to that of other major cities, in an attempt to explore ways to adapt to the ever-changing world as we ride the waves ahead of us.” -- Busan Biennale Curator Haeju Kim

Taking place 3 September to 6 November 2022 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan in South Korea, the Busan Biennale is one of the world's largest and most prestigious international art exhibitions. Manumie is the first Kinngait artist to participate in this significant visual art showcase. The 2022 Busan Biennale is titled We, on the Rising Wave, is in retrospect of the collective memories that remain or lie hidden within the history of Busan since the modern era and the changes in the city’s structure, examining them in relation to the reality in the world. In the title, ‘wave’ symbolizes the constant inflow and outflow of immigrants from other port cities around the world, suggesting global interconnectedness. It is also a metaphor for dissemination in an environment of technological change, as well as a description of Busan’s rolling landscape of seaside hills.

About the Artist

Qavavau Manumie is an artist from Kinngait, an Inuit hamlet on Dorset Island in the Canadian Arctic. In his playful yet purposeful paintings, Manumie expresses the legends, myths, and lives of the Inuit people, along with the animals with whom they share the Arctic. Using very distinct colours and compositions, he combines the harsh realities of everyday life in the Arctic with scenes from his own imagination. Many of his works concisely explore the seminal role of tools in the daily lives of people in the polar regions, while also highlighting the endless cycle of nature and the ongoing crisis of climate change. In his captivating images, the myriad inhabitants of the sea of thin ice – humans, tools, animals, and nature – freely mingle and merge to reveal one another.

Exhibition Documentation

This selection of images provides a full visual overview of the work featured at Busan Biennale along with installation shots from the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan presentation.