Description
This carving of Bears and Wolf by Paul Maliki from Repulse Bay/Naujaat is a rare opportunity to acquire an early carving, probably from around 1985, by the great master Paul Maliki. This carving has come to us from a private collector who worked for many years in Repulse Bay.
Paul was born in 1956 in an outpost camp near the community of Igloolik. He lived there with his family until he was 10 years old. At the time, they moved into Igloolik, where he stayed until he was 20. His family then moved to Naujaat to be with his grandmother. Paul still lives there with his wife and 7 children.
Paul did his first carving when he was 5 years old. He learned by himself, by watching other people. “Mostly from myself. I’ve learned most things by hunting. By seeing what’s around me. When I hunt animals, I study them. All the animals that are around us.”
“People always want my work. My Father would be away for days hunting, trapping foxes. If I didn’t go with him I would carve to support the family, if I wasn’t out hunting myself, in the dead of winter”
Paul carves many different kinds of animals and faces, but has most fun with caribou. His work can be found in many private and public collections and is in demand at galleries across North America, including Fehley Fine Arts Gallery in Toronto and the Judy Birch Gallery in Virginia and Nova Scotia. He has had many prestigious commissions, including presentation gifts to Prime Minister Brian Mulrony and Jean Cretien, and the Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. In 2000. he was also commissioned to produce a carving of ptarmigan for the Official Symbols Project for the Legislative building in Iqaluit, and in 1999 was 1 of 6 artists who made the Nunavut Mace. He was also invited to participate in the sculpting symposium- Stories in Stone, and has been repeatedly invited to attend the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Associations annual Arts Festival.
When he is not carving, Paul enjoys working with his dog team, hunting, and building things. “Just about everything. I like my life.”
This carving of Bears and Wolf by Paul Maliki is a wonderful early carving from a master carver. The bears and wolf have been pinned onto the base and are movable.
