Born in 1924 in the Kazan River area Barnabus Arnasungaaq's work has been a major influence in his community and on the art of Keewatin. 

Although the formal community of Baker Lake came together for a variety of reasons, Barnabus, like other Inuit sculptors of the area, had a readily identifiable style that is the result of a cohesive community with a mature identity. 

He created his work from the hard black steatite of the area.  Despite this, his sculpture tends to be very tactile, with a feeling of monumentality, while at the same time emphasizing shape, colour, pattern and texture. 

"I don't know where I get my ideas, ..., because it's all in your mind. It's you that carves. I look inside myself. Sometimes, before going to bed, I examine the stone, carefully. And in the morning I know what it will be."

As an artist with 40 years of experience Barnabus had this advice for new artists: "To the new generation of Inuit carvers...I recommend this: carve the way your want, and not the way the white man tells you - remember you are an Inuk."

Barnabus was married to graphic artist and carver Fanny Arngnakik. Their sons David and Norman are carvers as well.

Accomplishments:

• His work has been shown in over 100 group and solo shows, in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France and Canada
• His work is in permanent collections in, for example: the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the McMichael Canadiana Art Collection.
   

Exhibitions

• A Family Tradition: Inuit Art from Canada's Arctic, Presented by Arctic Inuit Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
• An Enduring Tradition II: Inuit Carving from the Northwest Territories, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Animals of the Arctic, Arctic Inuit Art
• Arctic Forms - Inuit Sculpture, Arctic Inuit Art Gallery
• Arctic Images: Major Sculptures by Canada's Leading Contemporary Eskimo (Inuit) Artists, at D/Erlien Fine Art Limited presented by Orca Aart, Chicago
• Arctic Spirit 35 Years of Canadian Inuit Art, Frye Art Museum
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Sanguine, La Rochelle
• Art Inuit, Galerie Saint Merri
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Akenaton
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Maite Aubert
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Ombre et Lumiere
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie La Tour des Cardinaux
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at La Halle aux Bles
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Le Theatre
• Art Inuit, l'Art des Esquimaux du Canada, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Maison Falleur, Cambrai
• Art Inuit, la Sculpture des Esquimaux du Canada, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chapelle de la Visitation, Thonon
• Art Inuit, la Sculpture des Esquimaux du Canada, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Les Chiroux, Centre Culturel de la Wallonie, Liege
• Art Inuit, la Sculpture des Esquimaux du Canada, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Centre d'Action Culturelle du Bassin Houllier, Lorrain, Saint Avold
• 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
• Baker Lake, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Baker Lake - Drawings, Sculpture, Tapestries, Theo Waddington
• Baker Lake Sculpture, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Baker Lake Sculpture, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Baker Lake Sculpture, The Upstairs Gallery
• Barnabus Akkanashoonark, Inuit Galerie
• Barnabus Akkanashoonark, Inuit Galerie
• Barnabus Arnasungnaaq - Recent Sculpture, Gallery One
• Beeldhouwkunst van de Inuit (Canada), by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai, France at Amphora Finippon pvba, Sint Andries, Brugge, Belgium
• Building on Strengths: New Inuit Art from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Cold Stones, Warm Hearts: Inuit Art from the Northwest Territories, University of Richmond
• Crafts from Arctic Canada/Artisanat de l'arctique canadien, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council
• Demons and Spirits and those who wrestled with them, The Arctic Circle
• Die Kunst aus der Arktis, Inuit Galerie, Mannheim held at Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute, University of Siegen at Villa Waldrich
• Drawings and Sculpture from Baker Lake, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Eskimo Carvers of Keewatin, N.W.T., Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Eskimo Fantastic Art, Gallery 111, School of Art, University of Manitoba
• Eskimo Sculpture, Winnipeg Art Gallery presented at the Manitoba Legislative Building
• Eskimo Sculpture (and Drawings), Waddington Galleries
• Eskimo Sculpture: Selections from the Twomey Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Espaces Inuit, Maison Hamel-Bruneau
• Exhibition and Sale of Musk-Oxen & Bears, Cottage Craft Gifts & Fine Arts Ltd.
• Granville Island Canadian Inuit Sculpture Exhibition (first exhibition), Vancouver Inuit Art Society
• Granville Island Canadian Inuit Sculpture Exhibition (second exhibition), Vancouver Inuit Art Society
• Hudson's Bay Company Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Images from the Arctic, Galerie D'Art Vincent
• In Celebration, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Inspiration Four Decades of Sculpture, Marion Scott Gallery
• INUA: 50 Works from the Cappadocia Collection of Inuit Art, McMaster Art Gallery
• Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic, Bayly Art Museum University of Virginia
• Inuit Legends in Stone, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Inuit Masterworks, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Inuit Sculpture: Displayed in Conjunction with the 1991 Cape Dorset Annual Graphics Collection, Muscarelle Museum of Art
• 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
• Kanuitpit? Kunst und Kulturen der Eskimo: Eine Auswahl aus den Museumssammlungen, Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde Munchen
• Keeping Our Stories Alive: An Exhibition of the Art and Crafts from Dene and Inuit of Canada, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum
• Keewatin Sculpture: Reflections of the Spirit, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Kunst van de Inuit Eskimo's, Gemeentelijk Kunstcentrum Huis Hellemans
• L'art et la Matiere: Peintures au sable de Claude Durand - Sculptures d'Art Esquimaux, Conseil Municipal Le Comite d'Animation Culturelle
• La deesse inuite de la mer/The Inuit Sea Goddess, Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal
• Magic and Shamanism, Artspace Main/Access Gallery
• Major/Minor, Marion Scott Gallery
• Masters of the Arctic: An Exhibition of Contemporary Inuit Masterworks, Presented by the Amway Corporation at the United Nations General Assembly
• Miniaturen, Inuit Galerie
• Mythic Image, Ancestral Spirits Gallery
• Not Just a Dancing Step..., Galerie D'Art Vincent
• 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
• Recent Sculpture by Barnabus Argrnasungaaq (Akkanashoonark) of Baker Lake, The Upstairs Gallery
• Salon International Europ'art '92, presented by Galerie Saint Merri
• Sculpture in Miniature, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Sedna: Spirit of the Sea, Feheley Fine Arts
• Selections from the John and Mary Robertson Collection of Inuit Art, Agnes Etherington Art Centre Queen's University
• Sheokju of Cape Dorset & Eleven Sculptors of Baker Lake, Victor Waddington Gallery
• Small Sculptures from across the Canadian Arctic, Feheley Fine Arts
• Spirits and Dreams - Arts of the Inuit of Baker Lake, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• Stone Sculpture by Akkanashoonark of Baker Lake, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Stone Sculpture of Baker Lake Eskimos, Pucker/Safrai Gallery
• The Art of Keewatin, Arctic Artistry
• The Coming and Going of the Shaman: Eskimo Shamanism and Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Inuit Imagination, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Jacqui and Morris Shumiatcher Collection of Inuit Art, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina
• The Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art from the Art Gallery of Ontario, University of Guelph
• The Spirit of the Land, The Koffler Gallery
• The Swinton Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Treasured Monument, Marion Scott Gallery
• The World Around Me, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery
• The Year of the Bear, The Arctic Circle
• The Zazelenchuk Collection of Eskimo Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Tundra & Ice: Stone Images of Animals and Man, presented by Orca Aart at the Adventurers' Club
• Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• [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 Galerie des Tanneurs, Mulhouse
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Les Martres-de-Veyre
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chambre de Commerce de Chateauroux
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Autre Regard, Paris
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Palais de l'Europe, le Touquet
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at St. Marcellin
• [L'art inuit], Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Palais de L'Europe, Le Touquet

Collections

• Amway Environmental Foundation Collection, Ada
• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City
• Eskimo Museum, Churchill
• Glenbow Museum, Calgary
• Inuit Cultural Institute, Rankin Inlet
• Klamer Family Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Macmillan-Bloedel Limited, Vancouver
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
• Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Brunswick
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife
• Sarick Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg