Art and Space: Kakegamic, Joshim

Joshim Kakehamic was born in 1952 in Sandy Lake First Nation, Ontario. Influenced by his brother-in- law Norval Morrisseau, Kakegamic began to paint in his teens. Kakegamic preferred to work on smaller-scale pieces, creating complex imagery that engergized every inch of the surface. He developed his Woodland style of art while studying with Carl Ray and Morrisseau during their tour of northern reserves. Kakegamic eventually joined Morrisseau and Ray in the late1960s in demonstrating art in Ontario schools. He was included in a group showing in 1969, which was quickly followed by a solo workshop at Fanshaw College.

In 1973, after achieving recognition as a professional artist in his own right, Joshim Kakegamic partnered up with his brothers Goyce and Henry to found the Triple K silk screening Co-operative. The Co-operative was founded under the belief that Indigenous artists should control their own art production, from design conception to marketing of final product. Operating under this mandate, Triple K distributed high quality silk screen prints to over 50 galleries across Canada, the United States, and Europe. The Co-operative was established in downtown Red Lake nearby the home of the artists and close to the origins of the Woodland School of art in North Western Ontario. This location was far away from southern Ontario and disrupted the prevailing belief that southern cities like Toronto were the core of the province’s strong art scene. In 1977, the Royal Ontario Museum recognized the importance of Triple K’s to the redefinition contemporary art centres by holding an exhibit of its silk screens.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Kakegamic took part in a number of his own solo and group exhibitions throughout Ontario, other sites in Canada, as well as on a group show "Woodland Indian Art Exhibition" at Canada House in London, England and Lahr, Germany. One of his major solo exhibitions took place at Toronto's Aggregation Gallery in 1977. His work remains in private and public collections in Canada and abroad.