Description
Ikayukta Tunnillie
(1911–1980) Cape Dorset
Ikayukta Tunnillie was an Inuk graphic artist and printmaker who became an important member of the Kinngait (Cape Dorset) artistic community. She lived much of her early life travelling on the land before settling in Cape Dorset in 1970. Her daughter, Kakulu Sagiatuk, and son, Qavaroak Tunnillie, also became artists.
Tunnillie’s birds and animals have a distinctive, highly stylized character. Simplified forms and exaggerated features give her subjects an unusual, almost otherworldly presence.
Tunnillie began drawing in the early 1960s and later worked with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, now Kinngait Studios. Her subjects included animals, birds, people and scenes from life in the Arctic. Her work appeared in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collections from the 1970s through 1980, and her prints are held in major Canadian collections, including the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.
