Marc Alikaswa was born in 1928 near the Manitoba border. His father, Idjuardjuk, was a well-known shaman. He has lived in Arviat most of his life but has also resided in Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove. His wife, Simone Kaslak Alikaswa is also a carver, and their daughter Mary Ann is a wallhanging artist.

Marc began his artistic career in 1967, carving primarily human figures out of the local grey Arviat stone, occasionally including caribou antler. His works are simple with rudimentary extremities and facial features. In many of his works there is a deep underlying spirituality, sometimes expressed in smaller partial figures emerging from the ground near the main subjects. Other works are serene mother-child representations, which can be quite large, and often show the woman leaning as if into the wind, illustrating the harshness of life in the North.

Selected References
Vision and Form (2003), Robert Kardosh

Exhibitions

• 3rd Salon Printemps, presented by Galerie Saint Merri
• Arctic Mirror, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Arctic Spirit 35 Years of Canadian Inuit Art, Frye Art Museum
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chapelle de la Visitation
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Thonon les Bains
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Palais de l'Europe
• Art Inuit: Autour de la Collection de Cape Dorset 1991, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Le Colombier
• Art of the Eskimo: Contemporary Sculpture & Drawings from the Canadian Arctic, Gallery 100 Hudson
• Arviat: Eskimo Point, Marion Scott Gallery
• Building on Strengths: New Inuit Art from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Eskimo Point/Arviat, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Espaces Inuit, Maison Hamel-Bruneau
• Inspiration Four Decades of Sculpture, Marion Scott Gallery
• Inuit Masterworks, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Inuk, Inuit: Art et tradition chez les esquimaux d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, presented by L'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai, at Musee des Beaux-arts d'Arras
• Kunst van de Inuit Eskimo's, Gemeentelijk Kunstcentrum Huis Hellemans
• Major/Minor, Marion Scott Gallery
• Marc Alikaswa of Eskimo Point, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Masterwork Sculpture 1985, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Miniaturen, Inuit Galerie
• Mythic Image, Ancestral Spirits Gallery
• The Art of the Eskimo, Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
• The Bond Between Mother and Child, The Arctic Circle
• The Mulders' Collection of Eskimo Sculpture, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Stone Sculpture of Arviat, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Tundra & Ice: Stone Images of Animals and Man, presented by Orca Aart at the Adventurers' Club
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chapelle de la Visitation, Thonon
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Palais de L'Europe, Le Touquet

Collections

• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Eskimo Museum, Churchill
• Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, Montreal
• Sarick Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg

Publications

• 1985 POVUNGNITUK PRINT COLLECTION = COLLECTION DE GRAVURES DE POVUNGNITUK, Author: Povungnituk Cooperative, Publication: Ville St. Laurent: La Federation des Cooperatives du Noveau Quebec (1985)