JOHNNY MEEKO SR. (1933-) SANIKILUAQ (BELCHER ISLANDS)
Fish and Whales, 1968
stone and wood, 3.5 x 7.5 x 3.5 in (8.9 x 19.1 x 8.9 cm)
signed and inscribed with disc number, "JOHNNY / MEEKO . E.9.-68".

Provenance
Collection of Mr. Stanley and Mrs. Jean Zazelenchuk.

Exhibited
Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Zazelenchuk Collection of Eskimo Art, 11 Aug - 12 Nov 1978, cat. 71.

Published
Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Zazelenchuk Collection of Eskimo Art, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1978), reproduced cat. 71, p. 58.

Stanley Zazelenchuk taught in Kuujjuaraapik (Great Whale River) and in Sanikiluaq for three years in the late 1960s, acquiring a fascinating and varied group of carvings in those years. Fish and Whales is one of six works by Johnny Meeko illustrated in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Zazelenchuk Collection catalogue. Like many of the works from Sanikiluaq in the collection, Fish and Whales is a charming composition that transcends the simple type of “souvenir” carving usually associated with the community.

References: For other works by the artist see Bernadette Driscoll, Belcher Islands / Sanikiluaq, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1981), cats. 43-44. For a similar composition by fellow Sanikiluaq artist Timothy Naralik, see George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972), fig. 96, p. 71.