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KALLEO, Josephina

Born
Nain, Labrador, 1920
Died
, 1993
Biography synopsis
Josephina (Josephine) Kalleo was an Inuit artist, best known for her 1984 book, Taipsumane, which is an Inuktitut word meaning "them days" or "memories of yesterday." The idea for the book began while Kalleo was working at the Torngasok Cultural Centre in Nail, Labrador, when she became interested in depicting childhood scenes through her art. With the support of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, Kalleo created forty-five drawings, which toured the province in the exhibition Taipsumane: Drawings by Josephine Kalleo, organized by the Memorial University Art Gallery. The gallery purchased the drawings for its permanent collection and exhibited them again as part of the 2002 group show, North and South: Tradition, Invention and Intervention in Labrador. The book continues to be a valuable record of traditional Inuit life in Labrador. Kalleo's drawings are colourful, vibrant, and highly detailed in their representation of daily life. The book has been integrated into the Newfoundland and Labrador school curriculum, serving as a vital document for the transmission of Inuit cultural knowledge among youth who grew up in a post-contact era.
Media used
Drawing
Painting
File & Archive locations
Winnipeg Art Gallery, MA - Clara Lander Library
National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
Artexte Information Centre, QC - Documentation Centre
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
Inuit Artist Biography System. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Inuit Art Section, 1996
"Josephina Kalleo." Heritage Newfoundland & Labrador. 2013
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/arts/josephina-kalleo.php
"Les Expositions De L'annee Au Canada / The Year's Exhibitions in Canada 1984." RACAR: Revue D'art Canadienne / Canadian Art Review 12.1 (1985): 65-72
Labrador Biography Project, 1989 Them Days 37.2(2013): 37
Buchanan, R. "Book Review: Taipsumane." Newfoundland Quarterly 84.2 (Fall 1988): 43
Creates, Marlene, and Joan Marsha Schwartz. Places of Presence: Newfoundland Kin and Ancestral Land, Newfoundland 1989-1991. St. John's, Newfoundland: Killick Press, 1997
Creates, Marlene, Susan Gibson-Garvey and Patricia Grattan. Marlene Creates: Landworks 1979-1991 St. John's, Nfld.: Art Gallery, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1993
Igloliorte, Heather. "Women of Labrador: Frontrunning Nunatsiavut Artists Garmel Rich, Nellie Winters and Josephine Kalleo." Inuit Art Quarterly (Fall/Winter 2015)
Mousseau, Chris. "Book Review: Taipsumane." Newfoundland Herald 40 (19 Jan. 1985): 112
Patey, Cal. "Josephina Kalleo: A Collection of Labrador Drawings." Arts in Formation 2.4 (March 1985): 10-11
Smallwood, Joseph R. and Robert D. W. Pitt. "Kalleo, Josephine." Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's, Newfoundland: Newfoundland Book Publishers, 1991

Writings by
Kalleo, Josephina, and Beatrice Watts. Taipsumane: A Collection of Labrador Stories. Nain, Newfoundland: Torngâsok IlusituKanginni, 1984

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