Oviloo Tunnillie is widely recognized as one of the leading sculptors of her generation. With few exceptions, her sculptures are noteworthy for their lack of specific markers of Inuit culture. Oviloo sculpts mostly figures - mostly figures of women - but seldom do they wear anything but simple gown-like dresses. Her figures, and their emotions, are thus rendered universal; her women are Everywoman.

This sculpture is immediately recognizable as one of her works, particularly due to the profound sense of humanity captured in a single gesture. Seeing the figure with one arm raised and the other covering her bowed head, the viewer can immediately sense the emotion that this woman is feeling. The apparent simplicity of the woman’s body and her hair, which drapes from her head like a veil, enhances the powerful impact of the covered face and hands. To say that this woman is beautiful and that the sculpture is elegant seems almost to be disrespectful of her grief - but she is, and it is. Grieving Woman is an extraordinarily moving sculpture. After 9/11, Tunnillie created a number of works reminiscent of this sculpture. In an interview at the time she stated that these women were crying for the children who had lost parents in the disaster. Oviloo was honoured with a catalogued solo exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2016.

Literature: For other similarly posed subjects by the artist see Gerald McMaster ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p. 208; Marion Scott Gallery, Oviloo (Vancouver, 1996), Figs. 1, 5, 18; Darlene Coward Wight, Oviloo Tunnillie: A Woman’s Story in Stone (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2016), p. 24, 34. Oviloo is featured in the 1994 exhibition catalogue edited by Odette Leroux et al, Inuit Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset (Gatineau: Canadian Museum of Civilization/Vancouver: D&M), pp. 220-239. See also the Marion Scott Gallery solo exhibition catalogues Oviloo Tunnillie (1994) and Oviloo (1996). Also see the articles by Peter Millard, “Meditations on Womanhood: Oviloo Tunnillie” in IAQ (Winter 1994:20-25); and by Robert Kardosh, “Transcending the Particular: Feminist Vision in the Sculpture of Oviloo Tunnillie” in IAQ (Fall 2009:33).