Tegan Voisey is a multidisciplinary artist who is originally from Makkovik, Nunatsivut, NL, and currently based in Thorsby, AB. Her practice includes jewellery-making with polymer clay and cut acrylic as well as graphic and textile design. “I'm the kind of person who really needs to explore and needs to try new things, or I burn out,” she says, explaining the variety in her practice. [1]
Voisey started creating art as a way to connect with her Inuit culture and heritage as well as to bring more representation to it. Over the years, she has developed her practice and has become a core part of a larger community of Inuit artists, utilizing social media to highlight artwork. Voisey began with working with polymer clay and eventually branched out to laser-cut acrylic work, which she has become known for. She also started creating digital art in 2019 as a way to incorporate art into her busy schedule. “I have two kids and I just wasn’t finding as much time to be creative because I couldn’t bring up my materials as often. So I picked up digital art as a way to stay creative while being active in my children’s life,” she says. [2] Voisey sells her work through her online business, The Littlest Inuksuk, which she created in 2019.
Her work tends to be bold in shape and size, very colourful and inspired by themes of Northern pride, incorporating traditional elements with a modern flair. “We deserve to be seen, we deserve to be showy,” she says. One of her signature earring styles features amauti, representing motherhood and the innovation of Inuit. A white acrylic amauti is the centrepiece, with rows of coloured beads surrounding it, often accompanied by caribou hair tufting near the hood. Voisey has created this style in various colour schemes, including purples, greens and reds. Her bold fireweed earrings are another example of her signature style. In vibrant pink and green, these earrings make an oversized statement on the ear.
In 2024, Voisey was part of a collaboration with the Royal Canadian mint to create a $2 coin celebrating Inuit Nunangat. 2025 was a big year: her earrings were featured in the Netflix, APTN and CBC series North of North, she started creating stained glass work, and also branched out into writing, publishing a feature story on collaboration with the Inuit Art Quarterly. Though she is already an avid collaborator, Voisey would like to continue doing this in the future and also participate in more community-centred arts events. “For my own art, I’m really appreciative of where I’ve gotten to. I’m always going to keep designing and exploring new mediums,” she says.
This Profile was made possible through support from the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artists Project.