Laina Geetah

Born 1998

Laina Geetah was born on October 25, 1998 in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Laina’s biological parents are the late Tanya Curley, and artist Johnny Pootoogook. She is the granddaughter of the famous Kananginak Pootoogook. Since her mother died when she was very young, she was adopted by David Simiga and Saila Geetah. Laina has 4 sisters and 4 brothers.

Laina comes from a very artistic family on the Pootoogook side, yet she is a self-taught artist and started drawing at the age of 18. In a short time she has developed a unique style that is all her own and not derived from any of the other artists in her family tree nor her community. Her newest work seems focused in two main veins. One takes on the iconic owl that so many other Inuit artists in the past several decades have made central to many of their works. But her owls are unlike any others, often with a playful Surrealistic flair, and many times composed with eyeball forms as a design element. Most always her owls are white and while her compositions are often complex, she uses a very muted and limited color palette for her owls. In contrast, for her more abstracted and geometric compositions, she plays with simplified forms in silhouette with bright color fields stacked in layers as their background. 

She is a young artist just beginning her rise as one of the shining stars in the ever growing firmament of Inuit Artists.