Cheekbone Beauty Releases Lip Collection in Partnership with the National Gallery of Canada
In celebration of the 5th Anniversary of Indigenous-owned cosmetic company Cheekbone Beauty’s For Future Generations collection and the National Gallery of Canada’s (NGC) new circumpolar Indigenous art exhibition Qillaniq (2026), the cosmetic company collaborated with the NGC to create a lip collection inspired by Inuvialuk visual artist and curator Darcie Bernhardt’s oil painting Picking Akpiks (2021). The collection includes three products, and each one represents a different growth stage for akpiit, or cloudberries. The berries begin as vibrant red and slowly turn into a glowing amber-gold as they ripen. The lipstick shade, Darcie, is a warm amber-coral that represents perfectly ripe aqpiit; the lip gloss shade, Sunshine, is a sheer, light-catching colour inspired by the way aqpiit catch the light when they ripen; and the lip pencil shade, Clay, is a coral-pink nude colour inspired by the land, where every berry begins.
Elisapie and Marc Séguin’s Short Film Nominated for a Pardi di Domani Award at the Locarno Film Festival
Animated short Piluk (2026), directed by Inuk singer-songwriter, filmmaker, and writer Elisapie and Canadian multidisciplinary artist Marc Séguin will premiere globally in August at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. The film has been nominated in the Pardi di Domani – Concorso Internazionale category, which is dedicated to short- and medium-length works by international emerging filmmakers. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Piluk is a poetic work about identity, attachment to land, transmission, and the bonds that connect us to our origins. It features handcrafted animation, artistically directed by Séguin, and original music by Elisapie. “For my people, telling a story is an act of transmission. This oral tradition, which blends myth with daily life, is the life force of Inuit art,” she says. [1] The winner for the Pardi di Domani – Concorso Internazionale category will be announced on August 15.
Inuktitut Version of Waiting for Godot Begins Production
Over seven years, Inuk actor and singer-songwriter Tatanniq Idlout and a group of Inuit translators she led—Ruth Angutiqjuaq, Carol Kunnuk, Kaitaasi Peter, and Mary Petooloosie—translated the two-act play Waiting for Godot (1952) into Inuktitut. Originally written by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot is the story of two men who wait endlessly for someone named Godot, passing the time by talking about the mundane and the profound. Idlout connected to the play when she was 18 years old. “I saw then, and I still see now, our story: the relationship of powerlessness to power; how we find humour in place of hardship; the idea of endless waiting for resolution, or answers, or God,” she says [2]. The Inuktitut version of the play, co-directed by Idlout and Canadian director Ross Manson and co-produced by their respective companies, 662 OVA and Volcano Theatre, started auditions for the main character, Estragon, on July 6 in Iqaluit, NU, and have already cast the other characters. The show will debut at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa from May 19–29, 2027, and will also be performed in Iglulik, Iqaluit, and Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) in Nunavut.
Shirley Moorhouse’s Solo Exhibition at the Esker Foundation
On May 23, artist Shirley Moorhouse’s travelling solo exhibition ᐃᔨ – Eyes – Shirley Moorhouse (2025–26) opened at the Esker Foundation in Calgary, AB. Longlisted for the 2025 Sobey Art Award, Moorhouse is known for her multimedia wallhangings and her work has been featured in several group exhibitions, including the 2023 Bonavista Biennale, which took place along the Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland; INUA (2021–2023) at Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq; and travelling exhibition SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut (2016–2020), which started at The Rooms in St. John’s, NL. Created in collaboration between the artist and independent curator Rose Bouthillier, ᐃᔨ – Eyes – Shirley Moorhouse was first presented at The Rooms in 2025 and highlights multimedia works Moorhouse has made of the past 30 years. Themes of environmental stewardship, resource extraction, geopolitics, spirituality, and cultural continuity are present throughout these pieces. ᐃᔨ – Eyes – Shirley Moorhouse is on view at the Esker Foundation until August 23.
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Lisbeth Karline Poulsen is a multidisciplinary Kalaaleq artist based in Nuuk, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) who works in several mediums from beadwork to painting to ceramics. If you’re interested in looking at digital illustration, check out the work of digital illustrator, tattooist, and graphic designer Panigaq McDonald, who is from Inuuvik, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, and based in Leduc, AB.
Notes
1 Elisapie, quoted in National Film Board of Canada press release, July 2, 2026, mediaspace.nfb.ca/comm/piluk-at-locarno-film-festival-2026/.
2 Tatanniq Idlout, quoted in “Waiting for Godot–Inuktitut,” National Arts Centre, accessed July 30, 2026, nac-cna.ca/en/creationfund/project/waiting-for-godot-inuktitut.