Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds

Shuvinai Ashoona (born 1961) is a third-generation Inuit artist based in Kinngait, Nunavut, Canada. Best known for her highly personal and imaginative iconography, Shuvinai’s imagery ranges from closely observed naturalistic scenes of her Arctic home to monstrous and fantastical visions. Her drawings imagine the past and present fused into a prophetic future.

Existing somewhere between dystopic and utopic, Shuvinai’s brightly coloured drawings teem with life. Her earthly and extraterrestrial worlds exist within a kind intergalactic future. The book provides insight into Shuvinai’s practice, with essays from Canadian and international authors, reflections on specific drawings, a select exhibition history and large-format illustrations, including installation images from The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada.

Gaëtane Verna is director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, Canada.