Mary K. Okheena

Mary Kapbak Okheena (also goes by Memorana, Krappak, Kappak)[1] is an Inuvialuit[2] graphic artist[3] known for her stencil prints including "Musk-ox Waiting for the Tide to Cross Water" (1986) and "Shaman Dances to Northern Lights" (1991), drawings and embroidery.[4] She is part of the third generation of organized graphic artists in the Canadian Arctic.[5] Okheena has five children[6] with her husband Eddie[7] and she currently lives in Inuvik where she practices embroidery and makes wall hangings.[4]

Mary K. Okheena in 1977, at Holman (Ulukhaktok)

Biography

Early life

Okheena was born in 1957 in Holman (Uluqsaqtuuq), King’s Bay, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Her father Jimmy Memorana was a sculptor and printmaker and helped found the Holman Island Eskimo Co-operative. Her mother, Nora Memorana, was an expert sewer.[7] Both Jimmy and Nora were respected drum dancers in their communities.[1] Okheena grew up watching her father and her aunt Agnes Nanogak Goose make prints for the Holman Print Shop (part of the Holman Island Eskimo Co-operative)[5] inspiring her career in printing.

Career

Mary K. Okheena started drawing in her teens and at the age of nineteen.[7] In 1977 she sold her first drawing.[8] She was invited by Father Henri Tardy to help with stencil printing after she made a large embroidery design for his church.[3] Father Tardy, who introduced printmaking to Holman, taught Okheena how to make waxed-paper stencils.[6] She started printing in 1977 when John Rose, the Holman Print Shop manager, asked her to come and learn printmaking[8][9]. Okheena began her professional printing career by printing other artists’ images, which are included in annual Holman print collections from 1979 and 1980-1981.[10] In 1986, Okheena began printing her own works at the Holman Print Shop [5] after her prints were rejected by the Canadian Eskimo Council in 1984.[8] Between 1977 and 1982, Okheena intermittently worked at the Holman Print Shop during the birth and infancy of her eldest children.[3] Okheena worked for the Holman Print Shop longer than any artist currently working there.[1]

She eventually left the print shop partly because of health problems caused by printmaking chemicals and set up a home studio.[7] Okheena also spends her time crocheting, quilting, carving, making wall hangings, and sewing clothing for her family.[7]

Okheena has also illustrated John Bierhorst’s 1997 children’s book called The Dancing Fox: Arctic Folktales.[11]

Artwork

Print

Mary K. Okheena uses a specific stencil technique in her prints to achieve subtle and luminous gradations of colour. Okheena abstracts formal qualities of animal and human forms.[3] She is often inspired by children’s facial expressions,[4] and often uses culturally symbolic images in her work such as the inukshuk.[1] She has created her own form of storytelling,[3] by reflecting the dual traditions of Holman Inuvialuit families and those of the resident Copper Inuit (as seen in Shaman Dances to Northern Lights).[2] She combines an Inuit aesthetic with influence from Southern culture and uses Western artistic devices.[3]

Over her career, she has had 74 of her drawings made into prints, and 36 she printed herself[9]. She has also printed 31 works from other artists’ designs.[4] In 1988, Mary K. Okheena was commissioned to create a print for the cover of the Northwest Territories Telephones’ telephone directory.

Major exhibitions
  • 1989 - Contemporary Inuit Drawings[12] at the Art Gallery of Guelph
  • 1993 - Inuit Art: Tradition and Regeneration[13] at the Canadian Museum of History
  • 1995 - Keeping Our Stories Alive: An Exhibition of the Art and Crafts from Dene and Inuit of Canada at Institute of American Indian Arts Museum[14]
  • 2001 - Holman: Forty Years of Graphic Art organised by the Winnipeg Art Gallery[9]

Public collections

A number of museums and galleries that have her prints in their permanent collections include the Canadian Museum of History[15], Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife,[10] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery[16].

Resources
  1. WAG, The Winnipeg Art Gallery (2002-04-15). "Holman: 40 Years of Graphic Art -- An exploration of the graphic art of Holman, Northwest Territories, Canada". www.virtualmuseum.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  2. Engelstad, Bernadette Driscoll (2009). Sanattiaqsimajut: These Things That Are Finely Made, "Shamanism in Ulukhaktok Graphic Art: Hidden Worlds, Ecstatic Displays". Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Carleton University Art Gallery. pp. 192–193.
  3. "Mary K. Okheena (b.1957)". contemporary arts americas tbc... 2014-11-18. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  4. "Mary Okheena | NWT Arts". nwtarts.com. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  5. "Songs of Animals (1986) by Mary Okheena, Inuit artist (C40402)". Spirit Wrestler Gallery. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  6. Roy-Sole, Monique (March 2005). "Art in the Bones". Canadian Geographic.
  7. Kelley, Caffyn (1991). Wild Things: The Wisdom of Animals. North Vancouver, B.C., Canada: Gallerie Publications. pp. 15–17. ISBN 0-9693361-4-4.
  8. "Portrait of a New Inuit Artist: Mary Okheena". Northern Review 1.2. Winter 1988.
  9. Winnipeg Art Gallery. (2001). Holman : forty years of graphic art. Wight, Darlene., Winnipeg Art Gallery., Canadian Museum of Civilization., Glenbow Museum. [Winnipeg]: Winnipeg Art Gallery. ISBN 0-88915-206-3. OCLC 46627030.
  10. Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy (1995). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. United States of America: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. ISBN 0-8240-6049-0.
  11. The Dancing Fox: Arctic Folktales
  12. "Contemporary Inuit Drawings". Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  13. Gautsche, Nancy (1993). "Inuit Art: Tradition and Regeneration: At the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec". Inuit Art Quarterly. 8 (2): 28–31.
  14. Foundation, Inuit Art. "Mary Okheena | Inuit Art Foundation | Artist Database". Inuit Art Foundation. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  15. "Mary K. Okheena work". Canadian Museum of History Collection. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  16. Okheena, Mary K. (1992). "Bear Tracks, 1992". Winnipeg Art Gallery Collection. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
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