Artist Info
Henry Napartuk
Henry Napartuk was a sculptor and printmaker from Kuujjuaraapik (Great Whale River), QC. Napartuk was born in 1932 to Josie Napartuk, a well-known sculptor who taught his son the techniques. In the early 1970s, Napartuk’s sister Lucy Meeko and her husband Noah Meeko returned to Kuujjuaraapik from a seven-week printing workshop in Puvirnituq and trained several printmakers, including Napartuk, in the local print shop they opened. Several of the works featured in Arctic Quebec print collection of 1973 were done by Napartuk.
Although Napartuk is best known as a sculptor and printmaker, he also created several ivory rings and objects for a touring exhibition of Inuit art in 1980. Additionally, Napartuk participated in a number of national snow sculpting competitions held in Quebec through the late 1970s and early 1980s, even travelling to Italy in 1982 to compete in an international snow sculpting competition.
Napartuk’s sculpture often combined human and animal forms and experimented with abstract forms beginning in the early 1960s. Napartuk’s works have been exhibited across Canada. His works have not yet been shown at the ULAG.
