Kenojuak << keh NOO yoo ahk >> (1927-2013) is considered one of the greatest artists in Canadian Inuit culture. She is also sometimes known as Kenojuak Ashevak. Kenojuak became known for her strong sense of composition, design, and color, as well as her fantastical subjects. Her subjects were varied, but her favorite was birds, especially owls. Her print Enchanted Owl is one of the most familiar images in Canadian art. Three of Kenojuak’s artworks, including Enchanted Owl, have been reproduced on Canadian postage stamps. In 2019, the Bank of Canada released into circulation a $10 banknote featuring Kenojuak’s work Owl’s Bouquet. A 25-cent coin with her work Our Northern Heritage had been released in 1999.
Kenojuak began her formal art career with drawings and traditional soapstone sculptures before concentrating on the graphic arts. She focused on etched and engraved prints in the 1960’s. Later, she added lithography and aquatint, a form of etching.
Kenojuak was born on Oct. 3, 1927, in Ikerrasak, an Inuit camp on the southern coast of Baffin Island. She grew up traveling from camp to camp on the southern part of Baffin Island and in Arctic Quebec (now Nunavut). At the age of 19, she married Johnniebo Ashevak, a local Inuit hunter.
Kenojuak’s interest in art began in the early 1950’s, during a long hospital stay after she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She learned beadwork, dollmaking, and other crafts through a program at the Quebec City hospital. She sold her works through programs run by the Inuit art enthusiasts James and Alma Houston. The Houstons encouraged Kenojuak and Johnniebo to produce drawings and sculptures to increase their income. James, the Canadian federal government’s administrator for the region, introduced printmaking to the area. In 1958, he established a printmaking shop in Cape Dorset on Dorset Island, near the southwestern tip of Baffin Island.
Kenojuak made her first print, Rabbit Eating Seaweed, in 1958 and created her famous Enchanted Owl in 1960. In 1963, she was featured in a short motion picture produced by the National Film Board of Canada about her traditional life and art. In 1966, Kenojuak and her husband moved to Cape Dorset. There she created hundreds of prints and drawings.
Over the years, Kenojuak received commissions to produce images for institutions, charities, cultural events, and celebrations. She often traveled to European countries as an ambassador for Inuit art. In 1970, Kenojuak and her husband created a mural for Expo ’70, a world’s fair held in Osaka, Japan. In 2004, she designed a stained glass window for the chapel of Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario. In 1967, Kenojuak was appointed an Officer, and in 1982, a Companion, of the Order of Canada. Appointment to the order is one of Canada’s highest civilian honors. In 2008, Kenojuak received the Governor General’s Award for artistic achievement. She died on Jan. 8, 2013.
