Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > KIGUSIUK (UQAYUITTUQ), Janet
Artist Database
KIGUSIUK (UQAYUITTUQ), Janet
- Born
- Kivalliq region, Nunavut, 1926
- Died
- Baker Lake, Nunavut, 2005
- Biography synopsis
- Kigusiuk (Kigusiuq, Keegooseot Kigusiuq, Keegoaseat Kigusiuq, Keegooseeot Kigusiuq) was the daughter of celebrated artist Jessie Oonark who encouraged her to draw as a young child. She was married to artist Mark Uqayuittuq. Kigusiuq moved to a settlement at Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake) in the mid-1950s, but it was her earlier life in the summer camps that served as a source for many of her drawings. In Baker Lake she began to work in printmaking. Her bright, bold and graphic work on paper typically depicts scenes of everyday life – hunting and fishing, and supernatural forms inspired by Inuit spirituality and stories. She also took printmaking courses at the Arctic College Fine Arts and Crafts diploma program where she also learned to work in collage. Kigusiuk was later recognized for her abstract geomorphic works focused on form and color. She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy. Her works have been included in numerous exhibitions throughout Canada and the United States, as well as solo exhibitions including the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2019. A large number of Canadian galleries and museums including the National Gallery of Canada, American and International collections hold her works.
- Media used
- Collage
- Drawing
- Printmaking
- Sculpture
- Textiles
- Education
- Arctic College (under Kyra Vladykov Fisher)
- Memberships
- Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
- File & Archive locations
- Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
- London Public Library, ON
- Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, QC - Media Centre
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
- University of Calgary Library, AB
- Vancouver Art Gallery, BC - Library
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Kigusiuq and Her Contemporaries. Toronto: Feheley Fine Arts, 2007
- "Janet Kigusiuq." Inuit Art Quarterly ?
http://www.inuitartfoundation.org/profiles/artist/Janet-Kigusiuq - Gillmor, Allison. ""Janet Kigusiuq: Recent Drawings at the Winnipeg Art Gallery." Inuit Art Quarterly 11.3 (1996): 43-46
- Heller, Jules and Nancy. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century New York: Garland, 1995
- Lewis, Katie. “Janet Kigusiuq (1926-2005).” Inuit Art Quarterly 20.3 (Fall 2005):40-41
- Sinclair, James. "Breaking New Ground: The Graphic Work of Shuvinai Ashoona, Janet Kigusiuq, Victoria Mamnguqsuuluk, and Annie Pootoogook". Inuit Art Quarterly 19.3/4 (Fall/Winter 2004): 58–61
- Wqye, Cynthia. The Urge to Abstraction: the Graphic Art of Janet Kigusiuq. Toronto: Museum of Inuit Art, 2008
