Populated by traditions and stories of mythical beings, Inuit society is marked by a linguistic diversity that deepens its relationship with nature. This rich culture, characteristic of one of the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic, forms the foundation of the delicate and expressive drawings of artist Shuvinai Ashoona.

Shuvinai Ashoona, who comes from a family of artists, was born in Kinngait (a settlement known until 2020 as Cape Dorset), in the Nunavut territory, Canada. Ashoona transforms her drawings into a magical realm, where cosmologies and social representations of Inuit life intertwine, while also reflecting the drastic climate changes affecting our planet. Active since the 1990s, the artist develops her work at the Kinngait Studios, a community art cooperative, using paper, graphite, and colored pencils as her main mediums of expression.

With sharp contours and delicate lines, Ashoona’s drawings unfold in a time that escapes the logic of the contemporary. Her works are imbued with memory, narratives, and shamanic cosmologies tied to Arctic tradition. In soft tones and serene lines, her drawings are constructed in layers, depicting Arctic deserts and coves inhabited by magical beings and Inuit people. The lines, accompanied by delicate pictorial hatchings, evoke narratives that span across intertwined temporalities, inhabiting the ambiguity between past and future. Her compositions reveal spiritual forces and multiple social narratives, perceptible especially in the diversity of human representations. The paper thus becomes a territory populated by fantastical beings and ecological concerns, deepening and reaffirming the artist’s cultural roots.