Six Inuit and three Korean artists have been selected to share their drawings as part of a Canadian pavilion during the 15th annual Gwangju Biennale in Korea. It’s the first Canada-Korea collaboration of its kind and is a feature of the 2024-2025 Year of Cultural Exchanges between the two nations.
It’s the second time Inuit artists from West Baffin Cooperative have shared their artwork at the biennale, and builds on the growing relationship between Kinngait Studios and its counterparts in Gwangju, Korea.
Kinngait Studios
Earlier this year, West Baffin Cooperative hosted two Korean cultural delegations in Toronto, Ottawa, Iqaluit, and Kinngait. During the visits they learned more about each other’s cultural practices and found a genuine fascination about the places in which each other respectively live.
Those preliminary cross-cultural exchanges served to inform this year’s pavilion, which ultimately led to the exhibition’s main theme that explores definitions of home.
In some cases, interactions between the artists were observational, about landscape, climate, or traditional attire. Other conversations were more nuanced, about linguistics and speculations around ancient Asia-Arctic migration. There were also intimate moments between the two groups, including demonstrations of identity through cuisine; exchanges of maktaaq and kimchi, palauga, and soju.
Maktaaq- a traditional food of Inuit and other circumpolar peoples, consisting of whale skin and blubber.
There were also political discussions about the still complex and often strained relationship between the government of Canada and Inuit people and those paralleled histories in Korea.
The exhibit features a set of six framed drawings taken from the 2023 pavilion, as a nod to the previous exhibition and a collaborative lithography commissioned for this project.
The six Kinngait artists include: Saimaiyu Akesuk, Shuvinai Ashoona, Qavavau Manumie, Pitseolak Qimirpik, Ooloosie Saila and Ningiukulu Teevee. The three participating Korean artists are Sae-woong Ju, Joheum Lee and Seol-a Kim. For the Silo, Paul Clarke. Featured image- 핏설악 퀴미르픽, 무제(고향과 또 다른 장소들), 2024, 종이에 잉크 Pitseolak Qimirpik, Untitled (Home and Other Places) 2024, ink on paper.
Inuk artist becomes the second person from the West Baffin Cooperative to receive prestigious award.
Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut – Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona has been named a recipient of the Governor General’s Awards in the Arts for her dedication to the expression and practice of Inuit art and her contribution to Canada’s larger contemporary art community.
ᓱᕕᓇᐃ ᐊᓱᓇ SHUVINAI ASHOONA
For more than two decades, Ashoona has been changing the face of Inuit art. Working from her home base in Kinngait, Nunavut, Ashoona’s ever-evolving drawing practice has resulted in a still growing body of work that stands as a unique contribution to the artistic expression of her time. Ashoona’s innovative drawings, many of which are ambitiously scaled, freely mix elements drawn from historic Inuit culture with contemporary references to more recent history and popular culture.
Untitled. 2010.
Her subjects include fantastical and otherworldly beings as well as self-reflexive images that comment directly on the process and practice of representation. Never content to follow rules and expectations, Ashoona’s unconventional artistic vision has successfully challenged and revolutionized how the public perceives Inuit art and contemporary Indigenous art more generally, helping to create a new space for expression and artistic freedom.
A longtime artist member of West Baffin Cooperative, Ashoona works frequently at the organization’s Kinngait Studios and has become a mentor to many next generation Inuit creators. “I don’t even think about getting awards for making my art,” said Shuvinai Ashoona. ‘I’m just happy when people can see my drawings in galleries and museums and books. I think this award means that many, many people are getting to see my artworks.”
Throughout her career, Ashoona has maintained a busy practice supported by an expansive program of exhibitions.
Her work has been featured in several important exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, including Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art, that institution’s landmark 2013 showcase of contemporary Indigenous expression from around the world. “Shuvinai Ashoona is one of Canada’s most influential visual artists and has fast become an internationally important creator,” said West Baffin Cooperative President Pauloosie Kowmageak. “Ashoona has achieved remarkable success and recognition for her art practice and for the community of Kinngait; I can’t imagine a more deserving recipient of this prestigious award.”
Handstand. 2010. Stonecut and stencil.
Ashoona has been active within the commercial gallery sphere as well. Her work has been featured in several solo and group commercial exhibitions, many of which have been presented by Vancouver’s Marion Scott Gallery, which nominated her for this award, and Toronto’s Feheley Fine Arts. Ashoona’s drawings have also been collected by many of Canada’s major art institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Musée des beaux arts de Montréal and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Ashoona has also collaborated with artists from beyond her Baffin Island community, including Shary Boyle (2015) and John Noesthedan (2008).
“Shuvinai Ashoona’s startling expression makes connections and bridges cultures,” said Robert Kardosh, third generation owner of Vancouver’s Marion Scott Gallery. “Her images tell us something important about ourselves and the world we all share. This award acknowledges and celebrates that deep resonance. It’s also a testament to her tenacious dedication to her vision and community.”
In 2022, she produced her first immersive installation, entitled Help Us. Commissioned by the Marion Scott Gallery, Ashoona’s floating constellation of drawn geometric forms was featured that same year at Art Toronto, where it earned critical and popular acclaim.
The last five years have been especially important ones for the artist, not just for her continuing creative growth but also in terms of her growing national and, increasingly, international profile. In 2019, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto presented Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds, an exhibition that brought together a decade’s worth of Ashoona’s most ambitious works. Curated by Nancy Campbell, the high-profile exhibition toured to several venues across Canada, exposing the general public to Ashoona’s singular vision while confirming her status as one of Canada’s most exciting and talked about contemporary artists.
The exhibition’s catalogue is itself a monument to Ashoona’s practice and place in contemporary Canadian art. At the beginning of 2019, just as the Power Plant’s exhibition was being launched, it was announced that Ashoona had won the 2018 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO, making her the first Inuk in history to win this prestigious award. In 2021, as part of the terms of the prize, the artist’s work was profiled at the Art Gallery of Ontario in a major exhibition that was entitled Shuvinai Ashoona: Beyond the Visible, making her work even more visible to a wider audience.
Alongside these major breakthroughs within Canada’s borders has been a recent series of announcements, exhibitions and awards that reflect Ashoona’s steadily growing reputation abroad. In 2021, Ashoona’s work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, entitled Shuvinai Ashoona: Drawings. The exhibition in Miami wasn’t only Ashoona’s first show in a US museum, but it also marked the first time that a US contemporary art institution has presented a solo exhibition by a Canadian Inuk artist.
In 2022, Ashoona’s work was included in The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition, also known as the Venice Biennale.
Ashoona’s inclusion in this major international showcase brought her distinctive expression to the attention of a global audience for the first time. The official jury’s decision to award Ashoona one of two special mentions brought even more attention to her installation, further attesting to her work’s unique power and appeal. Those same drawings are currently being featured at London’s The Perimeter, in a presentation entitled Shuvinai Ashoona: When I Draw, the artist’s second solo exhibition in the UK. For more biographical information about Shuvinai Ashoona click here. For the Silo, Paul Clarke.
Featured image: SHUVINAI+ASHOONA-2009 untitled graphite coloured pencil and pentel pen.
