Exhibit Opening! Northern Nightmares: Monsters in Inuit Art

Northern Nightmares

On May 7, gather up your courage and join Arctic Museum staff as they open their newest exhibit, Northern Nightmares: Monsters in Inuit Art, opening at 7 pm, in the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum’s new home, the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies on the Bowdoin College campus.

Northern Nightmares celebrates artworks by Inuit artists from Alaska, Canada, and Greenland in stone, antler, ivory, and on paper. Like people all over the world, Inuit tell many stories of monsters and artists draw on this rich mythology for inspiration. Some of the monsters they depict will be familiar: giants roam northern lands as they do all over the world. Many, such as Palraiyuk, with its lizard-like body and multiple stomachs to hold the various body parts of its human prey, are unique to the North. Tupilak carvings from Greenland have a gruesome story to tell, but also illustrate the complex relationship between Inuit artists and the contemporary art market. Completing the exhibit are a series of works by artists who draw on their imaginations to create new monsters, nightmarish, fantastical creatures of all shapes and sizes.

“The pieces in this exhibit are certainly scary,” reports curator Genevieve LeMoine, “but many are also very beautiful, and some are humorous, too. It has been very interesting to learn more about the stories, and to see the different approaches of the artists.”

The exhibit will open with an informal reception with light refreshments on the main floor of the Gibbons Center from 7 – 9 PM on Tuesday May 7. Museum staff will be on hand to answer questions and point out their favorite monsters.