Blessing of Narwhals by Ohito Ashoona

$500.00

Artist:                   Ohito Ashoona

Community:         Cape Dorset / Kinngait

Year:                      2021

Media:                

Etching & Chine Collé

Paper: Arches White

Printer: Studio PM

Out of stock

Description

Gorgeous new print from the 2021 Dorset Print Collection: Blessing of Narwhals by Ohito Ashoona

Winner of the Aboriginal Achievement Award for Arts and Culture in 2002, Ohito Ashoona is one of Cape Dorset’s pre-eminent sculptors. His powerful carvings of bears and other wildlife are in many prominent collections and Ohito has had several solo exhibitions in North America and Europe.

Ohito Ashoona is a sculptor from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU who is a part of a family of renowned artists. Spending most of his youth in an outpost camp near Cape Dorset where Ashoona lived a mostly traditional lifestyle, which developed into a strong attachment to the land and northern animals.

Year of practice and watching his family work gave Ohito the skill and knowledge to carve while his traditional upbringing gave him an in depth understanding of Inuit spirituality and beliefs and a respect for arctic wildlife. These themes all appear heavily in Ashoona’s carvings. Ashoona often carves northern animals with warmth, often presenting his figures in states of intimacy or curiosity.

Ohito’s work is also distinguished by his tendency to carve multiple figures, generating imaginative scenes and relationships between figures and animals

Ashoona earned the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2002 for his excellence in carving. His work has been exhibited widely across Canada and abroad. Ashoona’s works are a part of the public collection of institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Only recently has Ohito taken up graphic art.

 

 

Additional information

Weight 5 kg
Dimensions 18.7 × 20.3 × 5 in

biography Ohito Ashoona

OHITO ASHOONA (OKITUK; OHIKTO; OQUITUK; OQITUK

Date of Birth: December 11, 1952
Place of Birth: Cape Dorset
Mother: Mayoreak Ashoona
Father: Qaqaq Ashoona

Male/Female: Male E7 – 1304

Ohito grew up in an outpost camp not far from Cape Dorset. Here he learned to carve by watching his father, the well-known sculptor Qaqaq Ashoona and his uncle, Kiawak Ashoona, also a renowned artist. Ohito moved to Cape Dorset in 1981.

EXHIBITIONS:

September 1981:
The Year of the Bear The Arctic Circle
Los Angeles,California,
U.S.A.

March – April 1982:
Songs in Stone
The Arctic Circle
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

March1988:
Arctic Forms – Inuit Sculpture Arctic Inuit Art Gallery Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

January 1989:
Cold Stones, Warm Hearts: Inuit Art From the NWT
University of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

December 1990 – January 1991:
A Family Tradition: Inuit Art
From Canada’s Arctic
Presented by Arctic Inuit Art at the Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

November – December 1994:
Small Sculptures by Great Artists III Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

May – July 1995:
Tundra & Ice: Exceptional Sculpture from Canada Orca Aart Gallery
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

July 1995:
Sunakutagnuvalautut: Things from the Past Feheley Fine Arts Toronto, Ontario, Canada

March – April 1996:
Major/Minor
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

March – June 1996:
Tundra & Ice IV
Orca Aart Gallery Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

November 1996:
Small Sculptures by Great Artists V Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

November – December 1996:
New Visions
Spirit Wrestler Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

March – April 1997:
Itinraire Inuit
Recontrer un peuple traverse son art
Held at the Unesco Headquarters
Sponsored by association Inuksuk L’homme debo Paris, France
(catalogue)

November 1998:
Sculpture from the Canadian Arctic Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

January – February 1999:
The Magic of Ohito Ashoona and Mathew Sheviakju From Cape Dorset plus Older Prints from Private Collections: (January 15 to January 29, 1999)
The Albers Gallery of Inuit Art
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

September – October 2002:
Ohito Ashoona and Pootoogook Jaw The Albers Gallery of Inuit Art
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Spring 2005:
Cape Dorset Sculpture Spirit Wrestler Gallery Vancouver, British Columbia
(illustrated catalogue)

September – November 2005:
Selections from the Lowell Schoenfeld
And Josephine Mitchell Collection of Inuit Sculpture Carleton University Art Gallery
Ottawa, Ontario

November – December 2006:
Arctic Miniatures
The Albers Gallery
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

April – May, 2008:
Arctic Wind – An Expression of Naturalism Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery Vancouver, British Columbia

October, 2011:
Stone and Paper
Cape Dorset 2011 Native Art Gallery Oakville, ON
(illustrated catalogue)

January, 2012:
Small Treasures
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver Vancouver, BC

May – June, 2012:
The Unexpected Feheley Fine Arts Toronto, Ontario

August – September, 2012:
Transformations Galerie Vincent Ottawa, Ontario

April – June 2013:
Animal Power: Images in Contemporary Inuit Art Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

June – July 2002:
Ohito Ashoona Canadian Arctic Gallery Grunder
Switzerland
(illustrated brochure)

February 1989:
Ohito Ashoona
Eskimo Art Gallery Toronto, Ontario,Canada

May 1995:
Ohito Ashoona
Gallery Indigena
Stratford, Ontario, Canada

June – July 2005:
Ohito Ashoona Canadian Arctic Gallery Basel, Switzerland

May – June, 2008:
Ohito Ashoona Canadian Arctic Gallery Basel, Switzerland

May – June, 2010:
Polar Bears
Canadian Arctic Gallery Basel, Switzerland

COLLECTIONS:

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta,Canada

Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

HONOURS, ACHIEVEMENTS and EVENTS:

1989
Attended the opening of his solo exhibition at the Eskimo Art Gallery in Toronto.

1989
Received a Division Award at the Scottsdale Fine Arts and Crafts Show in Scottsdale, Arizona.

1990
Travelled to Toronto to demonstrate soapstone carving at the annual winter festival.

2002
Winner of the 2002 National Aboriginal Achievement Award; Arts and Culture.

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