Andy Miki was born in 1918 near the Kazan River, Nunavut. 

Miki started selling his craft work to "qablunaat" (southerners) when he lived at Ennadai Lake. While in the Ennodai Lake region he and his family lived in the Owlijoot's family camp depending, like other inland Inuit, on the annual caribou hunt for survival.⁴

Through the 1920s caribou herds diminished as did the price of animal furs. This was accompanied, in the 1940s and 1950s, by famine and disease that ravaged Keewatin area residents.⁵ Miki moved to Eskimo Point (Arviat) in 1959, and on to Rankin Inlet, then to Whale Cove, and moved back to Arviat in 1969.⁶

The stone of Arviat is hard and with small-scale tools is difficult to work with. Consequently, even today, Arviat artists tend to create works that conform to a stone's form and avoid elaborate designs. Miki's work tends to have the rough marks of his tools left on them. They, therefore, have a "matte, tactile look of a fine file or sandpaper finish."

Miki's work is abstract. His focus is on animals such as birds and caribou.This fascination with animals was present from the start of his artistic career. He remarked: "The images come from my imagination and from my observations of real animals. "I don't run out of ideas because I'm constantly thinking of what I'm going to carve next.

Andy Miki's abstract sculptures have a timeless quality. They symbolize a man of both resourcefulness and wit who had a singular and individual vision.

Sources: 

http://www.inuitarteskimoart.com/b-inuitarteskimoart-Miki_Andy.html
Bernadette Driscoll, Editor, 1982, Eskimo Point/Arviat, Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery
www.greydogtrading.com
Helen Burgess, Editor, 1988, Inuit Art: An Anthology, Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer Publishing.
Susan Gustavison, 1999, Northern Rock: Contemporary Inuit Stone Sculpture, Kleinburg, Ontario: McMichael Canadian Art Collection
 

Exhibitions

• Art of the Eskimo: Contemporary Sculpture & Drawings from the Canadian Arctic, Gallery 100 Hudson
• Die Kunst aus der Arktis, Inuit Galerie, Mannheim held at Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute, University of Siegen at Villa Waldrich
• Eskimo Point/Arviat, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Espaces Inuit, Maison Hamel-Bruneau
• Inspiration Four Decades of Sculpture, Marion Scott Gallery
• Kanuitpit? Kunst und Kulturen der Eskimo: Eine Auswahl aus den Museumssammlungen, Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde Munchen
• Keewatin Sculpture: Reflections of the Spirit, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Masterwork Sculpture 1985, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit, Norman McKenzie Art Gallery
• Rugged and Profound - Sculpture from Eskimo Point, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Sculpture of the Inuit: Masterwork Exhibitors of the Canadian Arctic, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council
• The First Passionate Collector: The Ian Lindsay Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Mulders' Collection of Eskimo Sculpture, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Stone Sculpture of Arviat, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• The Williamson Collection of Inuit Sculpture, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina
• The Zazelenchuk Collection of Eskimo Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery

Collections

• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City
• Inuit Cultural Institute, Rankin Inlet
• Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Sarick Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Toronto-Dominion Bank Collection, Toronto
• Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
• Williamson Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg