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Long Biography
Publications
Exhibitions
Achievements
Public Collections
Jessie
Oonark
, OC, RCA
Photo: Jessie Oonark
Jessie
Oonark
, OC, RCA
Medium:
drawing, printmaking, textile
Artistic Community:
Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake), NU
Date of Birth:
Artists may have multiple birth years listed as a result of when and where they were born. For example, an artist born in the early twentieth century in a camp outside of a community centre may not know/have known their exact date of birth and identified different years.
Back River, NU
1906
Date of Death:
Artists may have multiple dates of death listed as a result of when and where they passed away. Similar to date of birth, an artist may have passed away outside of a community centre or in another community resulting in different dates being recorded.
1985
Work
Jessie Oonark
(Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake))
Untitled (Joyful Man) c. 1967
Biography
Jessie (Una) Oonark was born near Back River, Nunavut. Oonark lived the first fifty years of her life in camps throughout the region. Oonark first began making drawings in the 1950s after settling in Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake), NU with her children. Her works quickly caught the attention of members of both the Qamani'tuaq and Kinngait (Cape Dorset) art communities. A few short years after beginning her artistic career, several of Oonark’s drawings were included in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collections of 1960 and 1961. Oonark was elected as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1975 and was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984.
View Long Biography and Citations
Publications
View All Publications and Details
Title
Year
Author
Social Fabric
November 2019
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Jessie Oonark's Artworks: Very much alive
December, 2018
William Noah
Heartfelt History
June-July 2018
Canada's History
Exhibitions
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Name
Year
Gallery
Shifting Geographies
September 19 - October 26, 2019
University of Alberta Museums
Jessie Oonark's Artworks: Very much alive
Dec 19, 2018 - May 12, 2019
La Guilde
Temporal Re-Imaginings
Nov 2015 - Apr 2016
Âjagemô Gallery, Canada Council for the Arts
Achievements
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Achievement
Year
Organization
Cover of the Inuit Art Quarterly
Fall 2017
Inuit Art Foundation
Cover of the Inuit Art Quarterly
Summer 1994
Inuit Art Foundation
Cover of the Inuit Art Quarterly
Summer 1988
Inuit Art Foundation
Public Collections
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Collection
Location
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University
Kingston, ON, Canada
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Fort Worth, TX, United States
Art Gallery of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada
Edit History
January 29, 2018
Updated by: Rebecca Gray
September 12, 2017
Created by: Inuit Art Foundation
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