Home > Native Art >Other Native Artists>Kakegamic Brothers
Joachim & Joyce Kakegamic
Native Artists
Goyce was born in Sandy Lake, Ontario in 1948, his brother Joachim in 1952. The Kakegamic brothers began painting as teenagers under the guidance of their Ojibwa brother-in-law, Norval Morrisseau, and Cree artist, Carl Ray, after Morrisseau's successful Toronto shows. Jackson Beardy, Alex Janvier and Daphne Odjig also influenced the brothers.
Josh Kakegamic joined Morrisseau and Ray in the 1960s in demonstrating art in Ontario schools. An early showing of his work occurred in 1969 in North Bay, Ontario.Josh continued to paint in North Bay for two years and then returned to Sandy Lake. In the 1970s and 1980s, he took part in a number of 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. His painting, Days Work is from that time period.
In the fall of 1973, after learning printmaking techniques at Open Studio in Toronto, Josh, Goyce and their brother Henry Kakegamic opened the Triple K Co-operative, a silk screening operation in Red Lake. The company got it's name in reference to the three founding brothers. Their intention was to represent themselves (as well as other native artists like Barry and Paddy Peters, Saul Williams and Norval Morrisseau) on their own terms, rather than being dependant upon the needs and expectations of non-native publishers. Triple K was modelled after one of Daphne Odjig's companies - Indian Prints of Canada Ltd. which she set up in 1970.
Shortly after opening for business Triple K decided to only produce limited edition silk screen prints from drawings not only designed specifically by the artist for the silk screening process but that involved the artist in the actual printing process.
The production of the high quality prints made the new "woodland" imagery affordable and available to prospective buyers across the country.
A major exhibition took place at Toronto's Aggregation Gallery in 1977.
In 1993, while on a rescue mission, Josh was drowned in a lake in northwestern Ontario. His work is in private and public collections in Canada and abroad including Simon Fraser University Art Center, the McMichael Canadian Collection, The Royal Ontario Museum and others.
