Nice Day is the first West Coast exhibit since 2005 of the unique artwork of Cape Dorset artist Jutai Toonoo. Toonoo comes from a prestigious artistic family that includes his father, Toonoo Toonoo, and his sister, Oviloo Tunnillie, a well-known sculptor, but he favours a more contemporary approach to style and subject matter. Jutai Toonoo may be best known for his stone portraits, many of which feature passages of text with political commentary on contemporary issues and expressionistic self-portrait drawings. Recent work has explored abstracted fragments of bodies and body parts.

The current exhibit features 20 drawings and sculptures from the past five years, including a series of large-format oil pastels that document the changing seasons on the Arctic landscape. A number of brightly coloured drawings with an almost Pop sensibility focus on single objects like tools and utensils.

Jutai Toonoo was born on Baffin Island in 1959 and learned to carve as a child. He began making art professionally in the late 1990s after completing a course at Nunavut Arctic College in 1995. In recent years he has been an active participant in Cape Dorset Co-op’s drawing and printmaking program.

www.marionscottgallery.com

Mia Johnson