Lot 111
Bill Nasogaluak ᐱᐃᓪ ᓇᓱᒐᓗᐊᒃ (b. 1953)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto, ON
Note:
The art of Bill Nasogaluak, an accomplished self-taught sculptor, painter and instructor originally from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, has garnered notable curatorial attention in recent years.
Nasogaluak has created a body of distinctive, socially conscious artworks, sometimes wry in humour and often unflinching in their directness. His imagery draws on Inuit Shamanism and mythology, as well as both Inuit and Western art historical traditions to investigate a wide range of the artist’s experience. Artworks confront issues as diverse as climate change, self-harm, depression, and the impacts of industry in the North.
In a 2020 interview, Nasogaluak explained the impetus for an iteration of the present work also entitled The Breaking of the Soul. Nasogaluak relayed that his cousin suffered from alcoholism and succumbed to the illness, ultimately taking his own life. The present work both honours Nasogaluak’s late cousin, and serves as a haunting image of the deteriorating and isolating effects of addiction.