MARY OKHEENA (MEMORANA; KRAPPAK; KAPPAK)
Born: 1955 Female W2-854
Resides: Holman
Drawings, Prints, Printmaking, Wallhangings, Crafts
"In recent years Mary Okheena has become a forceful presence in the annual
print collections from Holman, Northwest Territories, Canada. This young Inuit
artist started drawing and printmaking at the Holman Eskimo co-operative as a
teenager. The daughter of printmaker and sculptor Jimmy Memorana, Okheena is
part of the third generation of organized graphic artists in the Canadian
Arctic. As such her art combines a uniquely Inuit aesthetic and cultural
tradition with Southern cultural influences and Western artistic devices.
Okheena began her professional artistic career by translating other
artists' images into prints, which appear in the 1979 and 1980-81 annual
Holman print collections. Okheena excels at the stencil technique, achieving
subtle and luminous gradations of color. It was in 1986 when Okheena began to
apply the print medium to her own images....Okheena has consistently explored
the aesthetic possibilities of animal and human forms, abstracting and
exploiting their formal qualities in works such as 'Musk-ox Waiting for the
Tide to Cross Water'(1986) and 'Cold and Hungry'(1986). She ingeniously
creates visual metaphors as in "Mouth of the River"(1987) and "Songs of
Animals'(1986), and frequently injects her work with a sense of fun and
exuberance for life."
Annalisa R. Staples
In "North American Women Artists
of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical
Dictionary" 1995.
EXHIBITIONS:
1979, 1980, 1986, 1987, 1988, Holman Prints (printmaker)
1990, 1994 (annual collection)
(illustrated catalogue)
1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, Holman Prints
1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 (annual collection)
(illustrated catalogue)
February - June 1987 The Lindsay and Swartz Collections:
New Acquisitions
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg, Manitoba
May - June 1987 Inuit Graphics from the Past
Arctic Artistry
Scarsdale, New York, U.S.A.
November 1987 Inuit Traditions in Graphics: 1961-1987
Arctic Artistry
Hartsdale, New York, U.S.A.
January - Feb 1989 Images of the Far North
Arctic Artistry
(held at the Erie County Fairgrounds)
Hartsdale, New York, U.S.A.
July 1989 The Great Northern Arts Festival
held in Inuvik
Northwest Territories
Jan - Sept 1990 Arctic Mirror
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Hull, Quebec
May - June 1990 Arctic Wallhangings
Albers Gallery
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
Oct - Nov 1990 A Woman's Vision
Art Space Gallery
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
January 1991 Bears of the North
Snow Goose Associates
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
May - June 1991 Mother and Child: Sculpture and Prints
Albers Gallery
San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
(illustrated brochure)
January - March 1992 Images of Influence: Contemporary Inuit Art
Surrey Art Gallery
Surrey, British Columbia
January - March 1992 The Arctic Project: A Photographic Exchange
Surrey Art Gallery
Surrey, British Columbia
February - August 1992 Inuit Art on the Mezzanine: New Acquisitions
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg, Manitoba
(illustrated brochure)
June - July 1992 Women of the North: An Exhibition
of art by Inuit Women of the
Canadian Arctic
Marion Scott Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia
(illustrated catalogue)
Dec 1992 - May 1993 Inuit Art: Tradition and Regeneration
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Hull, Quebec
March 1993 The Prints Never Seen:
Holman, 1977-1987
Albers Gallery of Inuit Art
San Francisco, California
(illustrated catalogue)
Nov 1993 - Jan 1994 Contemporary Inuit Drawings
Muscarelle Museum of Art
College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.A.
(illustrated catalogue)
May - September 1995 Keeping Our Stories Alive:
An Exhibition of the Art and Crafts
from Dene and Inuit of Canada
Institute of American Indian Arts Museum
Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.
(illustrated catalogue)
Nov 1995 - Jan 1996 Qiviuq: A Legend in Art
Carleton University Art Gallery
Ottawa, Ontario
COLLECTIONS:
Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal, Quebec
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
HONOURS, ACHIEVEMENTS and EVENTS:
1989 North West Territories Telephone Commission. Mary's print 'Which One Should
I Get?' appears on the cover of the 1989 telephone book.
1993 Mary's print "The Pails are Heavy" and her biography appeared in Herstory;
The Canadian Women's Calendar.
SELECTED REFERENCES:
Balzer, Geraldine
HOLMAN ISLAND: In Transition. Inuit Art Quarterly, Vol. 4, No.
4, Fall, 1989. pp.16-19.
Barz, Sandra B., ed.
CANADIAN INUIT PRINT ARTIST/PRINTER BIOGRAPHIES. New York :
Arts & Culture of the North, 1990.
Berlo, Janet Catherine
DRAWING AND PRINTMAKING AT HOLMAN. Inuit Art Quarterly, vol.
10, no. 3 (Fall 1995), pp.22-30, 1995.
Canada. Canada Post
SINGING SONGS TO THE SPIRIT = UN CHANT AU GRAND ESPRIT: The
History and Culture of the Inuit: A Heritage Stamp Collection =
L' histoire et la culture des Inuit: ... / Text by Michael
Mitchell. Ottawa: Canada Post, 1980.
Gautsche, Nancy
INUIT ART: TRADITION AND REGENERATION: At the Canadian Museum
of Civilization, Hull, Quebec, December 17 to May 2 1993. Inuit
Art Quarterly, Vol. 8, No.2, 1993, pp.28-31.
Holman Eskimo Co-operatives Ltd.
THE PRINTS NEVER SEEN, HOLMAN, 1977-1987: A Collection of
Previously Unpublished Prints. Holman Eskimo Co-operatives;
Albers Gallery of Inuit Art, 1993?.
Institute of American Indian Arts Museum
KEEPING OUR STORIES ALIVE: An Exhibition of Art and Crafts from
Dene and Inuit of Canada. Santa Fe, N.M.: Institute of American
Native Arts Museum, 1995.
Kelley, Caffyn
WILD THINGS: The Wisdom of Animals. Gallerie: Women Artists'
Monographs, March, 1991.
Marion Scott Gallery
WOMEN OF THE NORTH: AN EXHIBITION OF ART BY INUIT WOMEN OF THE
CANADIAN ARCTIC: June 6-July 11, 1992. Vancouver: Marion
Scott Gallery, 1992.
Muscarelle Museum of Art (Williamsburg)
CONTEMPORARY INUIT DRAWINGS: The gift collection of Frederick
and Lucy S. Herman. Williamsburg, Va.: The College of William
and Mary in Virginia, 1993.
Okheena, Mary
PORTRAIT OF A NEW INUIT ARTIST: Mary Okheena. The Northern
Review, Vol. 1, no. 2, Winter, 1988. pp.141-143.
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