Settlement: Kinngait (Cape Dorset)

Oviloo Tunnillie stands alone among contemporary Inuit for her powerful sculptures: the very personal and poignant nature of their subjects set them apart from other Inuit work. Her childhood was disrupted by three years spent in southern Canadian hospitals at ages five, seven and eight, causing her to loose much of her Inukitut language and to feel discomfited by the traditional lifestyle that she had known. She began carving in 1965 at Igalaalik, learning from the example of her father, Toonoo, and others in the camp, and took it up in earnest from 1972. It was her work in the 1992 exhibition Women of the North at Marion Scott Gallery that really brought Oviloo to the fire. This was followed by the distinctive sculptures in Isumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in 1994. Oviloo is the only Inuit artist to have explored the female nude theme. In other work, she turns upside down the expectation that Inuit art portrays traditional culture for southerners to look at. Often she reverses the gaze by depicting southern cultural images, such as athletes or dancers. She also frequently depicts herself – reflecting on her hospital experiences, her life as an artist and on the social issues of being a woman. Sedna sculptures are her only images related specifically to Inuit culture. Her work has been exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. Among her solo exhibitions are Oviloo Tunnillie: In Two Worlds at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1997 and Oviloo Tunnillie: Meditations on Womanhood at Marion Scott Gallery in 2008. Her brothers Jutai and Samonie are also sculptors