Mark Tungilik is arguably the most famous Inuit ivory miniature carver. He was born in the Spence Bay (Taloyoak) area (in 1904, his daughter believes) then moved to Pelly Bay and finally Naujaat. Roman Catholic missionaries had been encouraging local Inuit to carve Inuit and Christian imagery in ivory already in the early 1940s, so Tungilik was already a skilled artist by the time James Houston showed up in 1950 to encourage carving production. 

In 1982, Darlene Wright wrote of Tungilik’s sculptures: "He began carving when he was a teenager and his first works were human figures in stone, usually holding ivory harpoons. Dogteams became a specialty and Tungilik remembers carving these completely from ivory, including the harnesses. This was a difficult task, however, and visual records of his work show that he was using sinew and other natural substances in his complex scenes of the 1950s."

Tungilik’s daughter has said that her father never stopped carving. Though he made many works of art, he also used his craft to sculpt hunting tools, domestic items, and even toys for his children. As he lost his sight in old age, he was known to use his tongue to sense rough areas on his carvings in order to know where to sand. 

Exhibitions

• Aboriginal Rights in Canada, National Library of Canada
• Contemporary Inuit Art, National Gallery of Canada
• Eskimo Art, National Gallery of Canada
• Eskimo Carvings: Coronation Exhibition, Gimpel Fils
• Eskimo Sculpture, Winnipeg Art Gallery presented at the Manitoba Legislative Building
• Eskimo Sculpture, arranged by the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, and the National Gallery of Canada
• Im Schatten der Sonne: Zeitgenossische Kunst der Indianer und Eskimos in Kanada/In the Shadow of the Sun: Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art in Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• In Celebration, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• In Celebration of Canadian Arctic Producers Tenth Anniversary, Canadian Arctic Producers
• Inspiration Four Decades of Sculpture, Marion Scott Gallery
• Inuit Ivories from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Masterworks: Selections from the Collection of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, McMichael Canadian Collection
• Inuit Sculpture from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Power, University of Michigan Museum of Art
• Ivory Sculpture, Snow Goose
• Major/Minor, Marion Scott Gallery
• Marc Tungilik - Recent Sculpture, Images Art Gallery
• Mark Tungilik, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Masterwork Sculpture 1985, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Miniature Ivory Sculptures by Tungilik from Repulse Bay, Le Centre D'art
• Repulse Bay, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Sanaugasi Takujaksat: A Travelling Celebration of Inuit Sculpture, Presented by Canadian Arctic Producers Ltd., with the assistance of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa
• Sculpture, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council a competition/exhibition organized as a contribution to the Centennial of the N.W.T.
• Sculpture by Mark Tungilik of Repulse Bay, Snow Goose
• Sculpture Inuit 25 Years After, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Sculpture Inuit: Stone/Bone circa 1960-1979, Canadiana Galleries
• Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council
• Selections from the John and Mary Robertson Collection of Inuit Art, Agnes Etherington Art Centre Queen's University
• The Abbott Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Bessie Bulman Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The First Passionate Collector: The Ian Lindsay Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Inuit Imagination, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Mulders' Collection of Eskimo Sculpture, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Swinton Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Three Exhibitions of Miniature Sculpture, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• We Lived by Animals/Nous Vivions des Animaux, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in cooperation with the Department of External Affairs
• White Sculpture of the Inuit, Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University

Collections

• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Eskimo Museum, Churchill
• Klamer Family Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
• Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife
• Toronto-Dominion Bank Collection, Toronto
• University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg