Artist Info
Harry Egotak
Harry Egotak was a graphic artist and printmaker from Ulukhaktok (Holman), NWT. Egotak was born in 1925 on Banks Island to artist, Flossie Papidluk and her first husband, Akoakhion. Much of Egotak’s childhood was spent travelling nomadically with his parents. In 1950, Egotak married his wife and the couple moved to Berkeley Point in 1953, before eventually settling in Ulukhaktok.
While Egotak created a number of original drawings, he is more well known for his work as a printmaker. In Ulukhaktok, Egotak became one of the original five printmakers in the community, working with Agnes Nanogak, Helen Kalvak, Alec Aliknak Banksland, and Jimmy Memogana in the early 1960s. Egotak recalls the resourcefulness of the group working first with dried sealskin stencils, cutting out the images with men’s razors, and using toothbrushes and shaving brushes to apply the ink. It wasn’t until the mid-1960s that stonecut printmaking was introduced.
Egotak became known as the most productive printmaker until his retirement in 1987. He printed drawings for several Ulukhaktok artists, printing over 172 catalogued and 17 uncatalogued prints between 1964 and 1987, with only three from his own drawings. While the print of Egotak’s drawing held at the ULAG has not yet been shown, a number of works he printed have been shown in the 2019 From the Collection and 2020 Unikkausivut: Stories from the North exhibitions.
