David Boxley and Jutai Toonoo

Featured artists David Boxley and Jutai Toonoo for June 2018.

David Boxley, Master Carver Spotlight

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David Boxley

Crisp, clean, sure lines and impeccable design are hallmarks of the master carver's work. Looking at the work of David Boxley leaves no doubt that he has achieved that distinction. Working with traditional Tsimshian formline designs, his work is intricately and lightly carved. The Inuit Gallery of Vancouver is pleased to present a collection of three bentwood boxes by David Boxley, each expertly bent in the traditional manner, carved and painted in Boxley's low relief and beautifully painted formline. Among the boxes currently featured in the gallery, the Four Eagles box represents the Eagle clan Boxley belongs to, and a stunning new Bear Design Bentwood Chest, featuring that animal on all four sides of the chest. This generously-sized chest is embellished with operculum shells along the front of the lid which the artist has deliberately left unpainted in order to emphasize the grain of the cedar. The gallery also has a mask that Boxley created in 2013, beautifully carved with clean lines and completed in his precise, restrained formline painting. Here you see the bear's ears on the forehead of the mask and a representation of the bear's claws on the cheeks.

Jutai Toonoo (1959 – 2015)

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Jutai Toonoo, "Falling Cup,"

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Contemporary Drawings: Falling Cup

When Jutai Toonoo passed away in late December, 2015, he was exactly where he wanted to be – sitting at his drawing table. Jutai was born in an igloo in a camp outside Cape Dorset, son of noted artists Sheojuk and Toonoo, and brother to renowned carvers Oviloo Tunnillie and Samonie Toonoo. These three artists rejected “traditional” Inuit subject matter and put a face to issues important to them in the contemporary world. Jutai made his first carving at age 7 under his father's guidance, and took up carving professionally as a young man. The Cape Dorset graphic program was never of interest to Jutai until Annie Pootoogook and Shuvanai Ashoona's work opened his eyes to the possibilities that medium held. From then on drawing became his passion, and anything or everything entered his artistic orbit from human faces to his lovely drawing, Falling Cup. His work often incorporated words, his way of “yelling at the universe,” and giving insight into his state of mind. Jutai often made portraits of the people around him and the Inuit Gallery has a fine group of drawings from the archive of Jutai's work, including the stunning portrait of a man in red (Portrait), a forthright and compelling image in shades of red, blue and yellow, or the intimate image of a sleeping man whose face seems to reflect an uneasy mind. We also have some of his remarkable drawings of objects, such as Catch a Falling Pot, or the beautiful, melancholy Feeling Helpless, Knowing You Exist. We are also fortunate to have one of Jutai's lovely serpentine cavings featuring a delicate profile along the front, with text reading The Joke is on Me on one side, and I am a Fool in the roundel on the other side.