Jolly Attagooyuk

Pangnirtung

Jolly Atagooyuk, (sometimes Attagoyuk or Atagoyuk) was born on Broughton Island (now Qikiqtarjuaq) in 1963. He now resides in Pangnirtung on Baffin Island with his wife and four children.

Atagoyuk studied woodcut printmaking at Arctic College before relocating to Iqaluit to further his education where he studied etching, stencil, silk screening, watercolour and oil painting, and subsequently graduated with a diploma in fine arts. During the winter of 2001, Jolly attended a jeweler’s course at Arctic College. His natural talents as an artist transferred easily to working in metal.

With over a decade of printmaking experience, Atagoyuk’s prints engage with Inuit traditions and culture, calling upon long-established Inuit aesthetics, figures and imagery with animals and spirit creatures as recurring figures in his pieces. Jolly is dedicated to keeping his culture strong through artwork. Much of the strength of the print tradition thriving in his home community of Pangnirtung, Nunavut Territory, can be attributed to Jolly’s talent, enthusiasm and generosity.

Jolly often tours the south, selling and displaying his work at art festivals and promoting the printmakers of Pangnirtung.