Kingmeata Etidlooie

(1915 – 1989)

Kingmeata was a graphic artist and sculptor who settled in Cape Dorset in the mid 1960s. A relatively prolific artist, Kingmeata had more than fifty of her prints published between 1970 and her death in 1979. Her work is characterized by a strong sense of order and structure.  Using predominantly simplified animal and bird motifs, she concentrated on the formal rather than the narrative qualities of her subjects.  However, her most important contribution to Inuit art has probably been her experimentation with media that are more painterly than linear.  In the late 1960’s to the early 1970’s Kingmeata became one of the first Cape Dorset artists to work with watercolours, which had been given to her by Terry Ryan, Co-op manager and arts advisor, who recognized the painterly qualities of her drawings.