Karoo Ashevak (Inuktitut: ) (1940 – October 19, 1974) was an Inuk sculptor who lived a nomadic hunting life in the Kitikmeot Region of the central Arctic before moving into Spence Bay, Northwest Territories (now Taloyoak, Nunavut) in 1960. His career as an artist started in 1968 by participating in a government-funded carving program. Working with the primary medium of fossilized whale bone, Ashevak created approximately 250 sculptures in his lifetime, and explored themes of shamanism and Inuit spirituality through playful depictions of human figures, angakuit (shamans), spirits, and Arctic wildlife.
In 1970, the Canadian Eskimo Art Council held the Centennial competition in Yellowknife. Ashevak's sculptures won third prize in that competition, and he became a recognizable artist after his solo exhibition at the American Indian Art Centre in New York in 1973. Unlike other Inuit primitivist carvings, Ashevak's work abandoned cultural references and adopted a modern expressionistic style, which visually appealed to a broader audience than collectors of Inuit art.
An extensive collection of Ashevak's sculptures went on solo or group exhibitions at commercial galleries around the world, including Franz Bader Gallery at Washington, D.C., Lippel Gallery in Montreal, the Upstairs Gallery in Winnipeg and the Inuit Gallery in Toronto. Ashevak's works were also widely traded on the auction market. Despite his short and tragic passing — he died in October 1974 from a house fire, Ashevak was crucial to the development of Inuit sculpture by visualizing an imaginative world with supernatural beings and shamanistic practices.
Early life
Ashevak was born in 1940 in the Kitikmeot Region, of the central Arctic of Nunavut. Like many Netsilik youths, he lived a traditional Inuit life by acquiring hunting skills that were necessary to support himself in later life. However, Ashevak grew up at a time when the establishment of wage-earning settlements rapidly replaced the Eskimo lifestyle and economy. In the past, Netsilik people lived in small communities and worked as nomadic hunters. Since they moved off the land to Spence Bay (Taloyoak), they were forced to adopt a southern-style economy such as living in a house and having a stable job. Ashevak and his wife Doris moved into the settlement in 1968. During that time, Abjon Bromfield, the Arts and Crafts officer at Fort Smith, Northwest Territories received a shipment of two carvings from Spence Bay. These Inuit carvings were highly appreciated in Ottawa and inspired people's interest in purchasing more sculptures from the region. Therefore, a carving program was funded by the government in Spence Bay, and sculptor Algie Malauskas was hired to teach Inuit some fundamental sculpture techniques. Ashevak soon joined the program because he could no longer support his family by hunting, and carving was one of the well-paid alternatives to earn a livelihood. Ashevak's official entrance into the art world was in 1970, where he participated in the Centennial competition in Yellowknife, held by the Canadian Eskimo Art Council. Ashevak's sculptures, Bird and Drum Dancer won third prize and an honourable mention respectively. In 1972, Avrom Isaacs collected Ashevak's works to organize a solo exhibition at the Inuit Gallery in Toronto. The show was financially successful in which about 30 pieces of Ashevak's sculptures became trendy among the public and sold well. However, this exhibition did not make Ashevak famous. His reputation was firmly established after the exhibition at the American Indian Art Centre in New York in 1973.