Prim (Pasa Mangiok) is half- Inuk and half- atikamekw, and identifies as two-spirited. They’re a multimedia visual artist originally from Ivujivik, Nunavik, QC, who now lives in Montreal, QC. Her artistic practice varies from painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, beading, and more.
Prim is a fourth-generation artist who grew up surrounded by art. Her father, Thomassie Mangiok, is a graphic designer and illustrator, and her mother, Marie Chachai, worked with drawing and watercolour. Her grandmother Passa Mangiuk is also an artist who creates paintings, linocut prints, beaded work and drawings; one of her great-grandmothers was a seamstress. Her parents and grandmother inspired and encouraged her to make a career out of her art: “I originally got into art as a form of therapy,” she says [1]. She credits her parents for helping her purchase materials and encouraging her to continue pursuing her goals. They thank their mother for emotionally supporting them and always making sure they had access to different mediums and their father for connecting them with opportunities in the art world, including creating animal-and-human-hybrid illustrations for his board game Nunami.
Painting remains one of Prim’s primary practices, but she enjoys working with new materials and mediums. Her studies in various art programs have helped her expand her practice. In 2022, she completed the Nunavik Sivunitsavut program. That same year, she started a visual arts program at Dawson College in Montreal and graduated from it in 2024, and started a Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Concordia University in 2024. Through these programs, she has learned new techniques and gained experience working in ceramics, drawing, textiles and video creation. “I like to think of myself as a ‘hoarder of artistic mediums,’” [2] she says. She has also refined her painting practice, learning to play with colour theory and experimenting with composition and perspective. During these years, she also taught herself how to bead. Though she grew up with beading in her family, she wasn’t interested until university. Now she incorporates beads into her pieces, including a version of a shaman mask she made in 2024.
Prim’s subjects, like her medium choices, range widely. She created a collection of digital works focused on contemporary events like the Black Lives Matter Movement, and used traditional watercolour to depict the effects of COVID-19 for the virtual exhibition ᓴᓇᓐᖑᐊᓂᑎᒍᑦ ᒪᑭᑕᖃᑎᒌᓐᓂᖅ | Sanannguanitigut Makitaqatigiinniq | Standing Together Through Art | Debout ensemble travers l’art (2020–2022).
Her ceramic piece Spinal Grimoire (2025), which she created as her final project for her ceramic’s class at Concordia University, was purchased by the Musée d’art de Rouyn-Noranda in Quebec and was part of the exhibition Dialogue v: Sami and Inuk Art in 2025. Inspired by Prim’s life and family, the piece is a book with four scenes in the interior, representing different stages of her life, made of polymer clay. In 2026, Prim’s work was also displayed alongside Mary Paningajak’s in a small exhibition at the Maison de la culture du Plateau in Montreal.
In 2022, after a period of feeling uninspired and disillusioned with her art practice, Prim met artist and teacher at Dawson College Joe Becker, who renewed her interest and creativity. “I finally got my spark back, and once I did, I felt like the possibilities were limitless,” she says. During this time, she was guided by the question, “What is Inuit art and what is not?” and started experimenting with different material combinations, testing the capabilities of different materials and creating texture and visual interest in her work. For her piece Treasure trove mind (2023), she mixed coffee grounds and modelling paste and glue to create a dirt-like surface. In Embodiment of venturing out on the street (2023), Prim created a torso out of cardboard, duct tape and plaster wrap.
Through her work, Prim strives to challenge viewers’ understanding of what Inuit art is and can be. Several of her pieces have no visual relation to Inuit tradition and culture, highlighting the varied experiences. “I create artwork I wish I had seen growing up.” In 2025, she started selling her work at markets and plans to create more prints and clothing designs. She would also like to create work that combines her cultures, Inuit and Atikamekw, and is currently developing several series of work.