Ovilu Tunnillie


Ovilu Tunnillie was born at Kangia, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories and 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.
Tunnillie came from a noted artistic family. Her parents, Sheojuke Toonoo and Toonoo were noted artists and her grandmother, Mary Qayuaryuk, was also a sculptor. 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 carved her first work, , in 1966 when she was 17 years old. Tunnillie's works are rendered in the distinctive serpentinite rock that is common to South Baffin. Her style is distinctive, employing an architectural quality. 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.
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. Her work is also featured in Keeping our Stories Alive: The Sculpture of Canada's Inuit along with the work of Lucy Meeko and Uriash Puqiqnak.
She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 2003.

Exhibitions