Birds inspire Inuit artists in many ways. Some artists evoke birds’ beautiful plumage and graceful flight through carefully rendered details. Others focus on birds’ more abstract importance as powerful shamans’ helpers and as key characters in myths and legends. The sculptures and prints in this exhibit, featuring the work of Canadian and Alaskan Inuit artists, explore these different approaches to birds in Inuit art.

Pictured above: Billy Gauthier, Shaman Transformation (detail), Northwest River, Labrador, Canada, 2006. Alabaster, sandstone, and serpentine. Museum purchase. Photo by Dean Abramson.