Meelia Kelly

Biography

Meelia Kelly was a Kinngait-based graphic artist known for use of exaggerated shapes and colourful works. Kelly lived the first several years of her life between nomadic winter and summer camps before her family settled in Kinngait [1]. Kelly’s older sister, Sheojuk Etidlooie, was also a graphic artist and encouraged Kelly to begin making art [2]. In the mid-1990s, Kelly began to work out of the Kinngait Studio run by the local co-operative, and she quickly developed her own personal style [3]. In Hoot (2006) an owl, or what looks to be the abstracted body of an owl, stands out for it's bright fuchsia body and little red feet poking out at the bottom. The body is filled to the brim with smaller white owls, looking straight ahead with wide eyes, and they look as if they are being taken for a ride.

Kelly’s rendering of the details of her community and arctic wildlife garnered her attention and her work was featured in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection from 2001-2006. In addition, her piece Pursued (2003) was featured on the cover of the spring 2004 issue of the Inuit Art Quarterly. She passed away in 2006, but continues to inspire a new generation of artists, notably her grandson Moe Kelly [4].

Artist Work

About Meelia Kelly

Medium:

Graphic Arts

Artistic Community:

Kinngait, Nunavut, Inuit Nunangat

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

Artists may have multiple birth years listed as a result of when and where they were born. For example, an artist born in the early twentieth century in a camp outside of a community centre may not know/have known their exact date of birth and identified different years.

Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU
09 January 1940

Date of Death:

Artists may have multiple dates of death listed as a result of when and where they passed away. Similar to date of birth, an artist may have passed away outside of a community centre or in another community resulting in different dates being recorded.

2006

Edit History

March 9, 2018 Created By: Lera Kotsyuba