Jutai Toonoo was born in Kinngait, NU in 1959, the same year that the inaugural Cape Dorset Print Collection was released. He grew up surrounded by artists and naturally fell into art making himself. He started with sculpture and gradually experimented with other media like print, drawing, pastel, and painting. Across all his media, Toonoo rarely conformed to traditional assumptions … Read More
Exhibition: Jutai Toonoo – Body Landscape
Feheley Fine Arts is pleased to present a special selection of erotic pastel drawings by Jutai Toonoo. An admirer of the female form and sexual anatomy, Toonoo created a number of works that veer between the representational and the abstract, making electrifying connections between the body and the landscape. The drawings featured in Body Landscape represent an important yet overlooked … Read More
Jutai Toonoo – Life: A Retrospective Exhibition
In late 2015, beloved artist Jutai Toonoo passed away at his home in Cape Dorset.We commemorated his life and work on March 5th with a special retrospective exhibition. Family from Cape Dorset, Iqaluit and Ottawa, along with friends and admirers of the artist attended the event at Feheley Fine Arts. Surrounded by a large body of Jutai’s work spanning the past 16 … Read More
Jutai Toonoo: Life
Jutai Toonoo belonged to the middle generation of Inuit artists who bridged the old and new worlds of the Arctic. Born in 1959, he grew up in Cape Dorset, a witness to the transformation of this small isolated settlement to a modern community. Ever curious, he took advantage of increased communications and global awareness to reach out for knowledge. The … Read More
“Still Life”: Jutai Toonoo’s Artist Talk
On Saturday, April 5, Feheley Fine Arts hosted an artist talk with Jutai Toonoo to discuss his latest exhibition of still life images. The intimate conversation included stories about the origins of many of Toonoo’s drawings, his experiences, and how the news and social issues within the northern community have served as inspiration for his artwork. Toonoo’s drawings often involve … Read More
Jutai Toonoo: Still Life
“I was thinking of still life painting. I looked at the objects in my house and in the studio and outside and used them as inspiration. Some were taken from my sketchbooks. When I would find the subject outside, I would borrow a camera, take a picture and work from that. Some I arranged to create the composition and others … Read More
Reception for Jutai Toonoo: Body Contemplation
Feheley Fine Arts held the exhibition Jutai Toonoo: Body Contemplation from April 21 – May 12, 2012. The show featured drawings by Kinngait artist Jutai Toonoo (1959–2015) completed in the oil pastel medium, as well as a number of stone sculptures. Works in the show centred on the theme of the human body and portraiture. The artist travelled from his … Read More
Jutai Toonoo: Body Contemplation
All of Jutai Toonoo’s drawings seem deeply personal. Described by William Ritchie, manager of the Kinngait Studios, Toonoo’s process is an “explosion of emotion… a fit of anger or joy.” At the same time, this volatility is “balanced by his spectacular work. He’s got an incredible eye and an incredible use of colour. He’ll dive into any new medium.” His … Read More