Jutai Toonoo

JUTAI TOONOO            (FELIX)

Date of Birth:    December 5, 1959                                 Male/Female:    Male E7-1682                           

Died:                December 2015

Place of Birth:   Cape Dorset

Mother:             Sheojuk                       

Father:              Toonoo 

                                                                                                                           

Jutai was born in an igloo on a cold December morning in 1959 just outside Cape Dorset.  He recalls the traditional way of life of his family and learned by watching his father go about the daily tasks that enable the family to survive.  He and his sister, renowned sculptor, Oviloo Tunnillie, learned about stone carving by watching their father.  Jutai did his first carvings when he was seven years old.  By 1982, carving was his major source of income.  One day he calculated his income and realized that he was making too little as a carver and decided to work in an office instead.  Eventually he realized that sitting at a desk all day was not a life for him.  In 1992 he resumed carving. In 1995 he also took his first jewellery and metalwork course and discovered a new artistic discipline.

                                                            Information courtesy of – Nunavut Arctic College 1996.

With a vision that is at once highly personal and often politically subversive, Cape Dorset’s Jutai Toonoo is a dynamic voice in contemporary Inuit art and in Canadian art more generally. Born in 1959, Toonoo belongs to the first generation of Inuit to grow up in permanent year-round settlements as opposed to small seasonal camps. He learned to carve by watching his father, Toonoo Toonoo, a respected leader and first-generation carver. Nevertheless, Jutai’s work bears little resemblance to other Cape Dorset sculpture, eschewing such standard subjects as wildlife and mythological figures. He is perhaps best known for his boldly formed sculptures of human heads, which he renders as though lost in a kind of agitated sleep.  Many of Toonoo’s sculptures bear witty or satirical inscriptions of text carved in English directly onto the stone’s surface. In recent years, he has become an active participant in Cape Dorset Co-op’s drawing and printmaking program, producing a series of drawings of human heads and portraits in a semi-abstract style that combines a haunted expressionism with cartoon-like renderings.

(Marion Scott Gallery)

EXHIBITIONS:

April 1990                                                        
Art Inuit
Presented by l’Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai
At Palais L’Europe
Le Touquet, France

July 1990                                                         
Art Inuit
Presented by l’Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai
At Thonon les Bains
France

April – June 1991                                              
Art Inuit
Presented by l’Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai
At Galerie La Tour des Cardinaux
L’Isle sur la Sorgue, France

February – August 1992                                    
Inuit Art on the Mezzanine: New Acquisitions
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg, Manitoba
(illustrated brochure)

April – July 1993                                               
Multiple Realities: Inuit Images of Shamanic Transformation
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg, Manitoba
(illustrated brochure)

October – November 1993                                
Sculpture and Graphics from Cape Dorset
Art Space Gallery
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

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

September – November 1996                            
Oviloo Tunnillie, Jutai Toonoo and Tytoosie Tunnillie
Albers Gallery
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

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

March – April 1997                                            
Major/Minor
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia

October – November 1999                                
Jutai Toonoo: Facing Dorset
Exhibition by John Reeves (Photographer)
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

June – September 2000                                    
Arctic Spirit – Canadian Inuit Sculpture
Boise State University
Boise, Idaho, U.S.A.

October 2000                                                   
Seven Emerging Artists from Cape Dorset
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia
(brochure)

November                                                        
Small Sculptures by Great Artists (November 2001)
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

November 2003                                                
Stone Carvings from Oviloo Tunnillie and Her Family
Arctic Artistry
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, U.S.A.

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

March 2005                                                      
Momentum
7 Emerging Artists from Cape Dorset
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia

November 2005                                                
Unique Visions
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

December 2005 – January 2006                         
Small Sculptures by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

December 2006 – January 2007                         
Small Sculpture by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

July – September 2006                                     
Out of the Ordinary: Cape Dorset Sculpture
Gallery Indigena
Stratford, Ontario

March – April 2007                                            
From the Back Room
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia

Nov – Dec  2008                                              
Breaking Ground:
New Oil Stick Drawings from Cape Dorset
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

July – August, 2009                                          
Extreme Drawing
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia

October, 2009                                                  
Mixed Media from Cape Dorset
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

October, 2009 – April, 2010                               
Arctic Spirit:
50th Anniversary of Cape Dorset’s Kinngait Studios
Art Gallery of Ontario
Toronto, Ontario

November – December, 2009                            
New Views on Old Traditions
The Guild Shop
Toronto, Ontario

December, 2009                                               
Small Sculptures by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
(illustrated brochure)

Oct 2009 – Jan 2010
Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset Celebrates 50 Years of Printmaking
National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
(illustrated catalogue)

January, 2010 – March, 2010                             
Big, Bold and Beautiful:
Large Scale Drawings from Cape Dorset           
Museum of Inuit Art
Toronto, Ontario

July – September, 2010                                    
Major Sculpture: Summer 2010
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia

May – June, 2010                                             
Facing Forward – New Works from Kinngait Studios
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia

June – July, 2010                                             
North Meets South
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

October, 2010                                                  
Arctic Wind III: An Expression of Survival
Coastal Peoples Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia
(illustrated brochure)

December, 2010                                               
Small Sculptures by Great Artists
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
(illustrated catalogue)

January – February 2011                                   
20 Great Sculptures
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario

January – February, 2011                                  
Small Treasures 2011
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia

June 2011                                                        
Dorset Large:
Large Scale drawings from the Kinngait Studios
Feheley Fine Arts
Toronto, Ontario
(illustrated catalogue)

June – July, 2011                                             
Sweet Innovation:
Sugar Lift Etchings by Tony Angahadlaq,
Kenojuak Ashevak, Jamesie Pitseolak and
Jutai Toonoo
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia

April 2011                                                        
Continuum
Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia

October, 2011                                                   Stone and Paper

                                                                        Cape Dorset 2011

                                                                        Native Art Gallery

                                                                        Oakville, ON

                                                                                    (illustrated catalogue)

November, 2011                                                Contemporary North:

                                                                        Drawings from Cape Dorset

                                                                        Madrona Gallery

                                                                        Victoria, British Columbia

February – March, 2012                                     Colour

                                                                        Marion Scott Gallery

                                                                        Vancouver BC

February 2012                                                   Dorset Now

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

June 2012 (Ongoing)                                          Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3   

                                                                        The Museum of Art and Design

                                                                        New York, New York    

December 2012 - January, 2013                         Small Sculptures by By Great Artists

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

February - June 2013                                         Where Do We Come From? What are We?                   Where are We Going?
          Identity in Contemporary Cape Dorset Art

                                                                        McMichael Canadian Art Collection

                                                                        Kleinburg, Ontario

April - June 2013                                               Dorset Seen

                                                                        Carleton University Art Gallery

                                                                        Ottawa, Ontario

May – June, 2012                                              The Unexpected

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

May - September 2013                                       Sakahan

                                                                        National Gallery of Canada

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

                                                                                   

November - December 2013                               Drawings: Contemporary Perspectives by Cape           Dorset Artists

                                                                        The Canadian Guild of Crafts

                                                                        Montreal, Quebec

January 2014                                                    Cape Dorset: New Generation

                                                                        Willock and Sax Gallery

                                                                        Banff Art Gallery

                                                                        Banff, Alberta

January 2014                                                    From the Vault

                                                                        Marion Scott Gallery

                                                                        Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

January - March 2014                                        Views from the Norths: Original Drawings from            Cape Dorset

                                                                        Alaska on Madison

                                                                        New York, New York

February - March 2014                                       North-South Encounter

                                                                        Pierre-Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain

                                                                        Montreal, Quebec

March – April 2015                                             Over the Top

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

December, 2015                                                Art Forms Winter 2015

                                                                        Marion Scott Gallery

                                                                        Vancouver, British Columbia

September – October 2015                                 Fifteen Years: Kingait 2000-2015

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

                                                                       

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

April 2002                                                         My Boat Sank!: An Exhibition of New Sculpture            by Jutai Toonoo

                                                                        Marion Scott Gallery

                                                                        Vancouver, British Columbia

November 2002                                                 Toonoo’s Legacy - Generations Series

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

                                                                       

August – September 2005                                  Life Forms/Jutai Toonoo in Cape Dorset

                                                                        Marion Scott Gallery

                                                                        Vancouver, British Columbia

March - May 2012                                              Jutai Toonoo: Multimedia

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

                                                                                   

April - May 2012                                                Jutai Toonoo: Body Contemplations

                                                                        Feheley Fine Arts

                                                                        Toronto, Ontario

February - March 2014                                       North South Encounter

                                                                        Pierre - Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain

                                                                        Montreal Quebec

COLLECTIONS:

Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario

National Gallery of Canada

SELECTED REFERENCES:

Milroy, Sarah

               FACE VALUE: THE DRAWINGS OF JUTAI TOONOO. Border Crossings, May 2013

Laurence, Robin

               INUIT PRINTS: JAPANESE INSPIRATION AND SWEET INNOVATION. Border Crossings, vol 30 no. 4, p. 96-97   

Lewin, Michelle

               BREAKING GROUND: OIL STICK DRAWING FROM CAPE DORSET. Inuit Art Quarterly, vol 24 no, 1, Spring 2009

Lynch, Brian

               A CRAVE ABOVE THE REST. The Globe and Mail, August 19th, 2005

Wight, Darlene Coward

MULTIPLE REALITIES: Inuit Images of Shamanic Transformation, April 17 – July 25, 1983. Winnipeg, Man.: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1993.

Quinn, Eilis

           THE REBEL: JUTAI TOONOO

 http://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2013/02/21/the-rebel-jutai-toonoo/