Toonoo

Toonoo was born in at camp on south Baffin Island. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Toonoo began making carvings and selling them to fur traders and James Houston, who was setting up an arts and crafts program in Kinngait. Toonoo was represented in many early important Inuit art exhibitions. Toonoo was one of the first Inuit artists to receive name recognition for his carvings, but as he did not sign his works few of his works have been identified. Toonoo died in a hunting accident in 1969, but his influence on art is his community is greatly felt though many of his descendants who are artists.