Ovilu Tunnillie

Ovilu (Oviloo) Tunnillie (December 20, 1949 at Kangia, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) – 2014[1]) was an Inuit sculptor. Her carvings served as her commentary on both traditional and changing contemporary Inuit culture. She was one of the first Inuit artists to work in an autobiographical sense.[2]

Tunnillie came from a noted artistic family. Her parents, Sheojuke Toonoo and Toonoo were noted artists and her grandmother, Kudjuakjuk, was also a sculptor.[3][4] Inspired to try carving soapstone at an early age by her father, Toonoo, her instruction was interrupted when she contracted tuberculosis and was sent to hospitals in Brandon, Manitoba, and Clearwater Lake, Manitoba.

Career

Tunnillie's works are rendered in the distinctive serpentinite rock that is common to South Baffin. Her style is distinctive, employing an architectural quality.[3] Themes in her work range from alcohol abuse and rape to memories of her time in a southern TB clinic freely depicting the inter-cultural reality of the contemporary Inuk woman.[3]

Her work is featured in several private and public collections including the Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad.[4]

She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 2003.[5]

Exhibitions

Oviloo Toonoo, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal (1981)

Debut - Cape Dorset Jewellery, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec (1976)

Arctic Vision: Art of the Canadian Inuit, travelling exhibition put on by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Canadian Arctic Producers, Ottawa (1984-1986)

Building on Strengths: New Inuit Art from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery (1988)

Hermitage - 89: New Exhibits, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, Soviet Union[4]

References

  1. ↑ Cochrane, Steven Leyden. "'I carve about my life'". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  2. ↑ Coward Wight, Darlene (2012). Creation and Transformation: Defining Moments in Inuit Art. Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-926812-89-2.
  3. 1 2 3 ZEPP, NORMAN. "Ovilu Tunnillie". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  4. 1 2 3 Leroux, Odette; Jackson, Marion E.; Freeman, Minnie Aodla (1994). Inuit women artists: voices frrm Cape Dorset. 1615 Venables Street, Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre. p. 222. ISBN 0-295-97389-7.
  5. ↑ "Oviloo Tunnillie (1949-2014), Inuit artist biography and portfolio". Spirit Wrestler Gallery. Retrieved 2017-03-11.

Hessel, Ingo (2006), Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum, Douglas & McIntyre, ISBN 978-1-55365-189-5

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