Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador (AGNL)
Shaped by the Sea
Permanent Collections
Josephina Kalleo encountered art late in life. Born in 1920 in Nain, Labrador, and educated at the Moravian Mission School, Kalleo was married and raised five children before her artistic talent was discovered.
In the early 1980s, Kalleo was working for the Torngasok Cultural Centre in Nain, transcribing tapes of spoken Inuktitut, her first and only language. While working, she would draw with coloured markers, creating images of Inuit figures at work and at play. The staff of the centre noticed these drawings, and she was encouraged to draw scenes from her early life depicting the ways of her people. Most illustrate traditional activities from the 1920s, such as hunting, fishing, and craft work, while some are about community holidays like Christmas.
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Travelling by Dog-Team Unknown Date Felt-Tipped Drawing 17.7 x 22 cm 
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Kalleo's drawings, along with her explanations of the scenes, were published in 1983 in her book Taipsumane: A Collection of Labrador Stories. The book contains 45 drawings along with a trilingual text in Standard English, Moravian Inuktitut using the English alphabet, and Inuit syllabics. It is considered one of the best descriptions of traditional Labrador Inuit life and is used to teach Social Studies around the province. These drawings were also shown in an associated exhibition, Taipsumane: Drawings by Josephina Kalleo, organized by the Memorial University Art Gallery. It toured around Newfoundland and Labrador, and eventually all 45 drawings were acquired for the Memorial University Permanent Collection.
Kalleo's drawings are highly regarded for their interesting use of colour, detail and direct composition. Given that her subjects are mainly scenes from her childhood, representing nearly all aspects of the life that Inuit lived during the 1920s, they have an almost nostalgic feeling.
Josephina Kalleo passed away in the mid-1990s.
