Aghalingiak Ohokannoak is a multidisciplinary artist and curator from Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay), NU, who works primarily in painting, drawing and digital arts. Their work has been exhibited at the Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD University in Halifax, NS, and they have curated exhibitions at venues like the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq in Manitoba. With a budding interest in working with art objects and collections, Ohokannoak is working toward a second bachelor’s degree in anthropology and archaeology.
Ohokannoak describes themself as an art-maker from a young age. “I was interested in doodling as soon as I could hold a crayon,” they say. [1] They cite their mom as a major artistic influence, noting “she took art classes while I was in elementary school and would make little drawings that really impacted me; she’s always been quite talented.” In middle school Ohokannoak developed an interest in fashion design with an affinity for drawing designs as opposed to sewing them. While completing their first Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at NSCAD University, Ohokannoak continued to explore a number of artistic mediums, including photography and multimedia arts. “But that made me realize how much I liked painting and drawing,” they recall.
Scenes from home in the North based on memory and photographs comprise many of Ohokannoak’s works. The painting Kuniktuk (Gives Kiss) (2023) is based on a photograph of the artist receiving a kiss from their mother. In it, Ohokannoak’s mother faces away from the viewer, affectionately squishing and kissing a young face. “I actually used a photograph of my mom facing the camera, and used just her silhouette, then reversed it,” they explain. The painting is executed in a style akin to realism, mixed with a whimsical unfinished quality that appears in the young face. Ohokannoak attributes their unique blending of styles to being very detail-oriented, working from photographic reference material and using memory to complete scenes.
In 2022 Ohokannoak curated the exhibition Kakiniit Hivonighijotaa: Inuit Embodied Practices & Meanings under the mentorship of Jocelyn Piirainen at the WAG-Qaumajuq, using works from the museum’s collections. Their paintings have been included in two exhibitions—a solo and a two-person show—at Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD University, both in 2023. In 2024, they participated in the inaugural Government of Nunavut Artist-in-Residence program, also at the WAG-Qaumajuq, where they spent four weeks experimenting with different mediums, like sewing, alongside Nunavummiut artists Dayle Kubluitok and Eva Qirniq Noah. Outside of artmaking, Ohokannoak developed an interest in working with collections; this led them to pursue a second degree in anthropology and archaeology. “In the future I would like to handle collections in a museum, and also be able to study them out in the field, while pursuing my own art on the side,” they say. “But I’m not setting anything in stone!”
This Profile was made possible through support from RBC Emerging Artists.