1969-2017
Samonie was the son of graphic artist Sheojuk and carver Toonoo, and the younger brother of sculptors Oviloo Tunnillie and Jutai Toonoo. Samonie began carving in his early twenties, making realistic depictions of wildlife and figurative subjects. However, his more recent work has been directed towards expressing social issues or images that give sculptural shape to more abstract concepts that we all think about but rarely visualize.
Younger brother of Jutai Toonoo and Oviloo Tunnillie, the three artists moved away from carving depictions of traditional activities and arctic animals and followed their own inner voices. Samonie's work is often figurative and does not shy away from difficult subjects. His work is hauntingly beautiful, and often deals with spirits - such as his Hand with Face, a serpentine hand inlaid with a caribou bone face, or his lovely but macabre Skull, with its gaping eyes and heart-shaped nose - and shamanic transformations, like the lovely Standing Caribou or his Wolf Spirit, which features a standing figure carved from serpentine, with small wolf ears protruding from his hair and an inlaid face carved from a lighter green stone.
