Nick Sikkuark
Nick Sikkuark’s works on paper are often inspired by the transforming powers and supernatural strengths of Inuit shamans. Many images feature groups of disembodied heads that spin around in the night – or day – time sky at terrific speeds in a kind of midair choreography. In other drawings, hidden or latent forms emerge in a process of abstraction from unrelated elements. Sikkuark’s sculptures are similarly expressive of shamanistic content. Carved from a range of organic materials including whalebone and caribou antler, these works are at once unsettling and refined, mixing humour with darker existential elements from the natural, spiritual and human worlds.
Born in 1943 near Garry Lake in the central Canadian Arctic, Nick Sikkuark spent the first years of his childhood absorbing the traditional culture and spiritual beliefs of the Netsilik (“people of the seal”). A self-taught artist, his first works were ivory miniatures depicting polar bears and other wildlife. In the 1970s, he began using organic materials to make the fantastical sculptures for which he would become well known. In 2003, Sikkuark shifted his practice from carving to drawing on paper, producing a significant body of work in the medium. Sikkuark died in 2013.
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Gallery Exhibitions
Related News
Nick Sikkuark in “Humour and Horror” at the National Gallery of Canada
Nick Sikkuark: Humour and Horror, the first major retrospective of this important Inuk artist,...
Nick Sikkuark at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery
Drawings by Nick Sikkuark are featured in The Faceless Familiar, a four-artist exhibition that runs at the Southern...
Nick Sikkuark Featured in the Toronto Biennial of Art
The inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art is currently featuring works by Nick Sikkuark. Open...
Tony Anguhalluq, Shuvinai Ashoona, Itee Pootoogook, Kananginak Pootoogook, Nick Sikkuark and Oviloo Tunnillie in Inuit Modern at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Works by Tony Anguhalluq, Shuvinai Ashoona, Itee Pootoogook, Kananginak Pootoogook, Nick Sikkuark and Oviloo...
