see it while it lasts

September 16, 2005 10:07 AM

The Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver has an extensive online gallery featuring Artist Biographies and inspiration for many of the pieces. It focuses on First Nations art, sculpture, and jewelry from the Inuit, Northwest Coast nations, Canadian Plains nations, and the Maori. Some of these communities have a new lease on life due to the income from this market, while others are dying out and skills are being forgotten. Some favourites: Dog Team: Jobie Crow from Umiujaq, Summer Solstice: Pitaloosie Saila from Cape Dorset, Raven Releasing Salmon Transformation Mask: Tom Hunt of the Kwak-waka'wakw. (scroll sideways)
posted by heatherann (6 comments total)

This is really nice (although I wish it were not a commercial site). Dog Team is about the cutest thing I've seen in a long time and I love it. If I only had 4k5cdn. Thanks for the post.
posted by OmieWise at 10:19 AM on September 16, 2005

My boyfriend and I visited this gallery about a month ago and the guy sat down and talked to us for about an hour, even though we obviously didn't have the money for what he was selling. They seem to have a very good relationship with their artists and the communities that they buy from, and are quite passionate about the stories and culture behind the pieces. Given my impression for the place, I'm not uncomfortable that it's a commercial site. The fact that it's commercial is giving a brand new source of income to communities that are often quite impoverished and seldom celebrated.
posted by heatherann at 10:23 AM on September 16, 2005

this is beautiful - and in my town, thanks for telling me about this heatherann, I will visit the gallery.

to the spiritwrestler gallery - what were you thinking, designing a website with horizontal scrolling?!?! some pages scroll vertically AND horizontally. is this the 'new cool' of web design, or is this the shape of things to come?
posted by seawallrunner at 10:30 AM on September 16, 2005

Thanks, I love "first nation" artwork. I was visiting the Pacific Northwest earlier this year, and took home a print from my stay.

I liked this print from the site. :)
posted by bullitt 5 at 10:43 AM on September 16, 2005

This gallery is excellent. In addition I'd recommend to anyone visiting Vancouver the Eagle Spirit Gallery on Granville Island for absolutely stunning, nay jaw-dropping work by coastal and Inuit artists.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 12:38 PM on September 16, 2005

The gallery's own site is here.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 12:48 PM on September 16, 2005