Naomi Ityi (1928-2003)  Naomi Ityi was born in 1928 near Garry Lake. Like many Utkusiksalingmiut of their era, Ityi and her family migrated south to the community of Baker Lake following the starvation years of the 1950s. When arts production began in Baker Lake in the late 60s and early 70s, Ityi was one of the first people to create appliqued and embroidered wallhangings, a form for which the community's women artists would eventually become famous. Although never a stone carver herself, she may have been inspired to take up art-making by the example of her father, the great sculptor John Kavik (1897-1993), who had been living and working in Rankin Inlet to the east since the late 1950s. Unlike many of her peers, Ityi did not participate in Baker Lake's printmaking program, and she produced only a small quantity of drawings over the course of her career. Always a highly expressive artist drawn to bright colours, stark contrasts and otherwordly imagery, Ityi seemed to become even more interested in expressing the spiritual dimension of the natural world as she grew older. She died in 2003.Selected ReferencesInuit Women Artists (1994), Odette Leroux (ed)The Way We See It: Paintings from Cape Dorset (1995), Susan Gustavison

Exhibitions

• A Woman's Vision, Art Space Gallery
• Arctic Mystery, Harmony and Transformation Baker Lake Textile Art, Art Gallery of the Canadian Embassy organized by Arctic Inuit Art
• Baker Lake Prints, Sculpture, Wallhangings, Marjorie Kauffman Graphics
• Baker Lake Wallhangings, Isaacs/Innuit Gallery
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1976, The Guild Shop
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979, Elca London Studio
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979, Gallery Phillip
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979, Vancouver Art Gallery
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979, The Raven
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979, Elca London Studio
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979-1980, Images for a Canadian Heritage
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1980, Snow Goose Associates
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1980, Margot Galleries
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1981, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Baker Lake Wallhangings 1981, Tundra Gallery
• Cold Stones, Warm Hearts: Inuit Art from the Northwest Territories, University of Richmond
• Crafts from Arctic Canada/Artisanat de l'arctique canadien, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council
• Embroidered and Appliqued Wallhangings by Naomi Ityi of Baker Lake, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Eskimo Wallhangings, McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario
• Exhibition of Inuit Art, Harbourfront Centre organized by the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph
• Exhibition of Inuit Art, Glenhyrst Art Gallery organized by the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph
• Games of the Inuit, Northern Images
• Keewatin District Wallhangings 1980, London Regional Art Gallery
• Keewatin District Wallhangings 1980, Margot Galleries
• Mary Wolff Ceramics and Canadian Eskimo Wallhangings and Weavings, Franz Bader Gallery
• Naomi Ityi : Wallhangings, Houston North Gallery
• Northern Lights: Inuit Textile Art from the Canadian Arctic, Baltimore Museum of Art

Collections

• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Inuit Cultural Institute, Rankin Inlet
• Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg