Nick Sikkuark was born in 1943 near Garry Lake to parents of Netsilik background. Orphaned at the age of nine when a flu epidemic claimed the lives of both parents, Sikkuark continued to live for a time on the land in the care of an older brother, later moving to Gjoa Haven where he received schooling and boarding from Catholic missionaries under Father Pierre Henry. In 1961 he made his first trip to southern Canada, arriving in Winnipeg to attend bible classes at the St-Norbert Novitiate and later transferring to the St-Joseph seminary in Ottawa. Sikkuark eventually decided not to enter the priesthood and in 1965 he returned north, supporting himself as an itinerant carpenter and settling finally in the small community of Kugaaruk, where he began carving ivory miniatures for extra income.

In 1972 Sikkuark was commissioned to make drawings that were subsequently published as a series of five story books by the Education Department of the Northwest Territories. In the early eighties he finally decided to become a fulltime artist, carving increasingly larger works in a variety of materials including whalebone, stone and caribou antler. Having recently made the decision to give up carving for health reasons, Sikkuark continues to live with his wife and family in Kugaaruk, where he spends his creative time making coloured drawings, a form he returned to in 2002 after a thirty year hiatus.

One of the great Netsilik creators of his generation, Sikkuark is best known for his unconventional sculptures made from a wide range of mostly organic materials, in which shamans are portrayed in unusual, often disturbing and/or humorous states of transformation. Combining naturalistic carving techniques with a sensitive use of the materials, often treated as found objects, Sikkuark's works are among the most powerfully fascinating in northern art.

Exhibitions

• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chapelle de la Visitation
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie La Tour des Cardinaux
• Art Inuit: Autour de la Collection de Cape Dorset 1990, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Centre Culturel Canadien
• Art Inuit: Autour de la Collection de Cape Dorset 1991, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Le Colombier
• Building on Strengths: New Inuit Art from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Carvings by Nick Sikkuark, Northern Images
• Crafts from Arctic Canada/Artisanat de l'arctique canadien, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council
• Cultural Olympics, held in Montreal
• Gjoa Haven Sculpture/Wallhangings, Atlantic Galleries
• Gjoa Haven/Spence Bay Sculpture, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Glaciopolis: Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Maison de Pesey
• Immaginario Inuit Arte e cultura degli esquimesi canadesi, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
• Indigena: Contemporary Native Perspectives, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Inspiration Four Decades of Sculpture, Marion Scott Gallery
• Inuit Art on the Mezzanine: New Acquisitions, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Ivories from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Masterworks, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Kitikmeot, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Kitikmeot-Land of the Spirits, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Kitikmeot: Sculpture from Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Pelly Bay, Isaacs/Innuit Gallery
• Kunst van de Inuit Eskimo's, Gemeentelijk Kunstcentrum Huis Hellemans
• Multiple Realities: Inuit Images of Shamanic Transformation, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Nagdjuk: Gift of the Caribou, Art Space Gallery
• Nick Sikkuark, Northern Images
• Nick Sikkuark of Gjoa Haven, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Nick Sikkuark of Pelly Bay, The Upstairs Gallery
• Nouveau Territoires... 350/500 Ans Apres, Presented at les maisons de la culture Cote-des-Neiges, Notre-Dame- de-Grace, and Rosemont-Petite Patrie, Montreal Recreation and Community Development Service and les Ateliers Visions Planetaire
• Sculpture by Nick Sikkuark, Northern Images
• The Great Northern Arts Festival, held in Inuvik
• The Hand: Images in Inuit Sculpture, The Isaacs/Innuit Gallery
• The Inuit Imagination, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Visions of Power, presented by the Earth Spirit Festival at York Quay Gallery and Leo Kamen Gallery

Collections

• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Sarick Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg

Publications

• BAKER LAKE JEWELERS LEARN NEW SKILLS — Creating rings and earrings from brass, copper and silver, Author: Bremer, Ronna, Publication: (Title and date in Inuktittut) (1995)