George Arluk | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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George Arluk

George Arluk, artist (b in the Keewatin region, NWT 5 May 1949). An Inuit sculptor now living in Arviat, Nunavut, Arluk began to teach himself how to carve soapstone at age nine.
Mother & Child
Black Soapstone by George Arluk, Baker Lake (University of Lethbridge Art Collection).

In the 1960s he was influenced by sculptors Tiktak and Kavik and John Pangnark. By the mid-1970s he had developed a unique style of semiabstraction. His subjects sometimes include spirits and arctic animals, but his main theme is the human figure. He depicts single figures such as hunters and mothers with babies in their amautiks. He sometimes groups figures together to form abstracted compositions of gently curving forms that undulate rhythmically. His sculptures often have antler parts added that protrude in complex patterns from the stone.