Narwhal with Young by Pudlalik Shaa

Biography Pudlalik Shaa

Pudlalik Shaa
Settlement: Cape Dorset / Kinngait
(1965) — E7-1906

Pudlalik is one of the sons of noted sculptor Aqjangajuk Shaa. Pudlalik made his first carving when he was 12 and has been carving ever since. He learned by watching the generation of carvers who, like his father, used axes to work on their pieces. Pudlalik still uses an axe on occasion, though he also uses more modern tools. Familiar themes are walrus and drumdancers.

Pudlalik was influenced by his father’s work. “I watched [my father] as he carved, he taught me. …my first carving …was a small seal, since then I’ve been carving, not all the time, but whenever I felt up to it.” Interview with the artist, Inuit Art Section, Nov. 1994.

Exhibitions

Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic, Bayly Art Museum University of Virginia

Keeping Our Stories Alive: An Exhibition of the Art and Crafts from Dene and Inuit of Canada, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum

Kunstwerke der Inuit, Presented by CreARTion, Eppstein in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association of Canadian Studies at the Hotel am Badersee

Multiple Realities: Inuit Images of Shamanic Transformation, Winnipeg Art Gallery

Sculpture Inuit, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec

The Next Generation–Inuit Sculpture, Gallery Indigena

The Shaa Family: Axangayu Shaa, Qiatsuq Shaa, Pudlalik Shaa, Albers Gallery of Inuit Art

Wildlife and Nature in Art, Arctic Experience

Collections

Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg

Publications

2005 Cape Dorset Sculpture FEATURED PAGE 66, 67

1995 Institute of American Indian Arts Museum KEEPING OUR STORIES ALIVE: An Exhibition of Art & Crafts from the Dene & Inuit of Canada. Satna Fe, NM

1993 Wight, Darlene MULTIPLE REALITIES : Inuit Images of Shamanic Transformation, Winnipeg, MB: Winnipeg Art Gallery