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Manasie Akpaliapik
Manasie Akpaliapik (born 1955) is a Canadian Inuk sculptor.[1][2] Akpaliapik was born in a hunting camp on Baffin Island, Nunavut and moved with his family to Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay) in 1967.[2] Though his parents were sculptors, he learned to carve at age ten by observing his grandparents.[1] At age 12 he was sent to residential school in Iqaluit where his language and culture were suppressed.[1][3] Akpaliapik left residential school at 16 years old.[1][3] Akpaliapik married a woman named Noodloo and returned to Arctic Bay with his family.[1][3] His wife and their two children were killed in a fire in 1980, after which Akpaliapik moved to Montreal and subsequently to Toronto.[1][3] WorkAkpaliapik sculpts with bone, ivory, and stone.[3] His sculptures typically have human or animal forms and are closely connected with traditional beliefs.[4] He began to carve professionally after 1980.[1] On his work, he says:
In 1989, he received a Canada Council of the Arts grant to study certain aspects of Inuit culture including drumming and kayak making for his project North Baffin Island Legends.[1][2] He also delivers workshops about Inuit art.[1] Akpaliapik was long-listed for the Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award in 2023.[5] Exhibitions and collectionsAkpaliapik's works are in included in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa,[1] Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec[6] and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.[7] In 2017, the Art Gallery of Ontario held a solo exhibition of his work.[4] In 2021 the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec held Manasie Akpaliapik Inuit Universe with works from the collection of Raymond Brousseau, the first time it devoted an exhibition to a single Inuk artist.[8] In 2024 Montreal's McCord Stewart Museum reprised and expanded upon the 2021 exhibition, called Manasie Akpaliapik, Inuit Universe.[9] References
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