July 30 to september 12, 2026
List of artworks available soon
Mary Paningajak
La Guilde is proud to present Mary Paningajak: Pride and Joy for the 36th edition of the Festival international Présence autochtone. This exhibition of Mary’s Ivujivik home-based printing practice delves into the fruits of collaborative living and cohabitation with the natural world; exemplifying the synergistic relationships that have, and continue to be necessary for both survival and quality of life in the arctic.
Mary Paningajak’s work explores the multifarious relationships between animal, human, and plant ecologies. This body of small-format works expands conceptions of the arctic trophic chain into the joyous by foregrounding variegated ocean, animal, and plant life with the many products of harmonious living: Numerous species of wildflowers and mushrooms native to Nunavik, the results of a bountiful hunt, beautiful parkas, thriving populations of native flora and fauna. Mary examines the ties between the different facets of life itself and how these relationships facilitate the existence of all the beings with whom Inuit share the north.
Though the European languages we speak fail to capture the intricacies of the natural world in the highly specific and illustrative ways that Inuktitut does; Mary’s works allow for a glimpse into the more sensitive attunement and to, and understanding of these relationships that are essential to Nunavimmiut (The people of Nunavik), and all who inhabit our planet.
If you are interested in learning and seeing more; these themes and more of Mary’s works are explored through an art-historical lens in the complementary exhibition of our permanent collection Ilisattaugialik: Something That Needs to be Learned.
Text by Katsitsanoron Dumoulin-Bush
Vernissage: Thursday July 30, from 5:30 p.m.
BIOGRAPHY
Mary Paningajak Alaku is a visual artist from Ivujivik, Nunavik. Multidisciplinary, she practices drawing, painting and printmaking as well as sculpture inspired by her environment, Inuit culture and the creativity of her people.
Paningajak Alaku is part of the collective of artists who have developed a linocut workshop in Ivujivik, in collaboration with Qumaq Mangiok Iyaituk, Passa Mangiuk and Lyne Bastien. Her work has been presented at events such as the Biennale de Saint-Jean Port-Joli, Montreal’s Foire Papier and can be found in collections such as Avataq Cultural Institute, Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec and Kativik School Board.
In 2023, Paningajak Alaku gave a lecture at Atelier Circulaire on the realities of printmaking in Nunavik and in May 2025, she completed a residency at their studio where she explored engraving alongside Paule Mainguy. Paningajak Alaku is the first artist to inaugurate the exhibition space at the new Sanaaq cultural, community centre in Montreal, with her solo exhibition Sikutsajaq, which opened on May 15, 2025.
About Land inSights
LAND InSIGHTS is the driving force behind the Montreal International First Peoples Festival, a multidisciplinary artistic and cultural event that makes Montreal the nerve centre of Indigenous creativity from the three Americas for ten days in August. Three strategic objectives were set upon their foundation in 1990: create a major First Nations festival in Montreal, commemorate and remember the Great Peace of Montreal 1701 upon its tricentennial, and secure a permanent home for First Cultures in Québec’s metropolis. Mission: Link the artistic and cultural renaissance of First Peoples to the cultural dynamics of a major metropolis within a sustainable development perspective based on friendship between peoples, diversity of sources of expression as a collective cultural wealth to share and recognition of the specificity of First Nations.