Description
Beautiful Loon by Ningeosiaq Ashoona from Cape Dorset.
Ning Ashoona is a Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU based artist who was raised on the land in Saturituk, on the southern coast of Baffin Island. She fondly recalls fishing as a child, and that carving and drawing were a practice in daily life, work made for the co-op to support supplies for life on the land. Her grandparents being established carvers, the young Ashoona learned from them, using hand tools, carving with great detail. Ashoona’s favourite subject was the loon, observing them on the water and on land. It was upon her move to Kinngait where she began to be more deeply influenced by the female carvers around her, including her grandmother.
Carving for most of her life, Ashoona is one of only a few full-time female carvers, yet is very prolific and has a distinctive style. Using both hand and power tools Ashoona bridges tradition and innovation in her approach and technique. Inspired by Arctic wildlife and her childhood on the land, much of Ashoona’s work depicts animals at play. The animals dance and glide, giving an impression of movement, and their glossy coats hint at their kinship with water. The smooth soapstone Ashoona uses, in a variety of colours from ink black to green and gray, are polished to a high lustre and give the appearance of the animals and birds just having emerged from the water.
This Loon executed in Arctic Marble shows Ning’s diversity and mastery in a variety of media. The white marble gives the bird an almost majestic aura.
Ashoona’s work has been exhibiting in Canada and abroad at institutions such as the Albers Gallery of Inuit Art, San Francisco, U.S., Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, ON and the Inuit Gallery of Vancouver. She has appeared in the Inuit Art Quarterly.
Check our website for other carvings by Ningeosiaq Ashoona.
For additional information about Ningeosiaq check out her attached biography. Enjoy the beauty of this wonderful Loon by Ningeosiaq Ashoona.
Biography Ningeosiaq Ashoona
NINGEOOSIAK ASHOONA
Date of Birth: December 20, 1979 Male/Female: Female
Place of Birth: Cape Dorset
Mother: Mayoreak Ashoona
Father: Kaka Ashoona
Influenced by her father, Ningeoosiak started to carve around 1998.
EXHIBITIONS:
July 1 – September 2006 Out of the Ordinary
Cape Dorset Sculpture
Gallery Indigena
Stratford, Ontario
2006 Rhythms in Motion
Galerie d’art Vincent
Ottawa, Ontario
(illustrated catalogue)
December 2006 – January 2007 Small Sculpture by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
January – February, 2009 Small Treasures
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
March – April, 2009 Arctic Wildlife
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
December, 2009 Small Sculptures by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
(illustrated brochure)
October, 2010 Arctic Wind III: An Expression of Survival
Coastal Peoples Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia
(illustrated brochure)
January – February, 2011 Small Treasures 2011
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
April, 2011 Flight Across the Tundra
Balzac Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
April 2011 Continuum
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
June – July, 2011 New Beginnings in the Arctic
Balzac Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
September, 2011 Fall Migration:
A Selection of Birds in Sculpture, Prints and Drawings
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
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
August, 2012 Faces of Baffin
Canadian Arctic Gallery
Basel, Switzerland
December, 2012 – March, 2013 Telling Stories:
Inuit Art from Cape Dorset
Toronto Pearson Airport: Terminal 1
Toronto, Ontario
September – October, 2012 Ice and Sand
Coombe Farm Gallery
Dartmouth, Devon, United Kingdom
(illustrated catalogue)
November 2014 – January 2015 Small Sculptures by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto Ontario
December, 2015 Art Forms Winter 2015
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia
November 2015 – January 2016 Small Sculptures by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto Ontario
January – February, 2017 Small treasures
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
February, 2018 Small Treasures
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, BC
February, 2019 Life in Stone VI
Steinbrueck Native Gallery
Seattle, Washington
July – August, 2019 Continuum: The Inuit Gallery at 40
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, BC
(illustrated catalogue)
February, 2020 Life in Stone VII
Steinbrueck Native Gallery
Seattle, Washington
January – February, 2020 Small Treasures 2020
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
October – November, 2020 Kinngait Calling
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
August 2020 Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Sculptures
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
December, 2021 – January, 2022 Small Sculptures by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
March – May, 2022 New Inuit Art:
Contemporary Art from Kinngait
National Museum of Ethnography
Warsaw, Poland
January – February, 2023 20th Annual Small Treasures
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
January – February, 2023 Collaborative Works from Kinngait
Madrona Gallery
Victoria, British Columbia
February 2023 SPRING/BREAK Art Show
(Claire Foussard Booth)
Los Angeles, California
March-April 2023 Reawakening
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
June 2007 Ningeosiak Ashoona
Transformations
Gallery Philip
Toronto, ON
(illustrated catalogue)
July – August, 2018 Ningeosiak Ashoona
Form and Balance
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
