Shuvinai Ashoona (b. 1961) began drawing in the early 1990s. Although she never received formal training, Ashoona's family and Kinngait Studios in Cape Dorset provided her with a creative atmosphere. Her grandmother is the renowned artist Pitseolak Ashoona and her father is the sculptor Kiawak Ashoona.
Over the years, Ashoona developed a distinct iconography of fantastical elements from her imagination that she incorporates in her depictions of contemporary Inuit life, historical events, and the northern landscape. Ashoona’s work is included in museum collections throughout Canada including Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario; Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, Quebec; Inuit Art Center, Indian and Northern Affairs, Ottawa, Ontario; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; and the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba. In the United States, Ashoona’s work is represented in the permanent collections of Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK; Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, Boston, MA; National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; and Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions including Shuvinai Ashoona: Drawings, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Shuvinai Ashoona: Beyond the Visible, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds, a touring exhibition organized by the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto. Her work has been included in group exhibitions including Once a Myth, Becoming Real, 14th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Republic of Korea, The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, and Three Women, Three Generations: Drawings by Pitseolak Ashoona, Napatchie Pootoogook and Shuvinai Ashoona at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, 18th Biennale of Sydney: All Our Relations” (2012), and “Oh, Canada” (2012) at Mass MoCA. Shuvinai Ashoona received the 2018 Gershon Iskowitz Prize which is awarded each year to recognize an individual’s contribution to Canadian art and one of two special mentions for the 59th Venice Biennale's Official Awards, alongside American artist Lynn Hershman Leeson. Her work was also included in Phaidon's 2013 catalogue, Vitamin D2: New Perspectives in Drawing, an international survey of contemporary drawing.