For Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona first U.S. museum exhibition, ICA Miami presents a series of drawings and prints that observe the evolution of indigenous Arctic life and illustrate a rich and imaginative world representative of the exceptional artistic production of contemporary Inuit artists.
Employing dynamic points of view in her work, ranging from foreshortened perspective and uncanny aerial views to mismatched scales and mise-en-scène, Ashoona focuses on Arctic people and life as they have shifted from living off the land to settled communities, documenting everyday activities such as seal cleaning, clam digging, Christmas celebrations, and yoga classes. Ashoona also reproduces the Arctic landscape in her work, incorporating imagery of rock-strewn riverbanks, the arid tundra, endless spreads of snow, and the animals that are familiar to Inuit life—walruses, seals, and fish. Often turning these creatures and landscapes into unnatural forms that graft to human bodies and menacing, cavernous settings that inhabit an enigmatic world, Ashoona’s work also references popular culture, horror films, the Bible, traditional Inuit motifs, and perspectives that draw from the delayed arrival of modern technology to the artist’s home of Kinngait (formerly known as Cape Dorset).
Shuvinai Ashoona: Drawings, on view May 7 – November 28, is curated by ICA Miami Director of the Knight Foundation Art + Research Center Gean Moreno.
About Shuvinai Ashoona
Shuvinai Ashoona (b. 1961, Kinngait, formerly Cape Dorset in Nunavut, Canada) comes from a long line of Inuit carvers and printmakers—her parents, Kiugak Ashoona and Sorosilooto Ashoona, were distinguished artists, as was her grandmother, Pitseolak Ashoona, and a cousin, Annie Pootoogook.
About the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) is dedicated to promoting continuous experimentation in contemporary art, advancing new scholarship, and fostering the exchange of art and ideas throughout the Miami region and internationally. Through an energetic calendar of exhibitions and programs, and its collection, the ICA Miami provides an important international platform for the work of local, emerging, and under-recognized artists, and advances the public appreciation and understanding of the most innovative art of our time.
Launched in 2014, ICA Miami opened its new permanent home in Miami’s Design District on December 1, 2017. The museum’s central location positions it as a cultural anchor within the community and enhances its role in developing cultural literacy throughout the Miami region. The museum offers free admission, providing audiences with open, public access to artistic excellence year-round.
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami is located at 61 NE 41st Street, Miami, Florida 33137. www.icamiami.org.
Female artistIndigenous art
By Chadd Scott
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