Saima Romito-Kalluk

Saima Romito-Kalluk is a digital illustrator and painter from Iqaluit, NU, who is currently based in Toronto, ON. In addition to visual arts, Romito-Kalluk also has experience in screenwriting.

Since childhood, Romito-Kalluk has desired to share the beauty of her culture and the nuna. She has lived in Toronto since the age of six where not many people knew about Inuit. “I had this longing to be able to show them—through my own eyes and experiences—how much magic there is within our people and our land,” she says. [1] This feeling has stuck with her over the years and has influenced her artistry, especially the subjects of her digital illustrations.

Romito-Kalluk started painting in high school during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic, recounting, “I had all day and night to just paint, and that’s what I did.” She has received a lot of support from her parents to continue her artistic pursuits. While she is still learning art history, her personal style leans toward Impressionism, preferring visible and minimal brush strokes as well as simplified forms like in her untitled illustration from 2023 that features a caribou. She is inspired by the styles of various contemporary artists, including painter Mark Tennant’s emotive brush strokes, as well as the magical realism and fluid aspects of illustrator Iris Compiet’s paintings, but the enchanting, colourful and at times haunting paintings of Celina Kalluk—her mother—have been the most influential.

A useful creative process for Romito-Kalluk is writing down a passing idea, expanding on it when she has time and being open to how it develops—whether in terms of medium, composition or colour scheme. In addition to digital illustrations and painting, she is interested in printmaking and filmmaking. In 2023 Romito-Kalluk wrote the script for and directed the short film Isunngannguaq (2025) based on a song her namesake and great-grandfather Kalluk wrote and sang, which she grew up hearing her mother sing. Animated and produced by Taqqut Productions, the story focuses on a young girl caught between two versions of herself.

Aspiring to work as a full-time artist with a studio space one day, Romito-Kalluk wants to work with and for Inuit. She believes that sharing your culture through art can have a large impact. “When you see something with your own eyes and it makes you feel something—anything—it makes you more inclined to be empathic and aware of others,” she says.