Parr was born in 1893 in a remote part of the south coast of Qikiqtaaluk Nunavut (Baffin Island) at a campsite near Kinngait (Cape Dorset). He lived a traditional nomadic hunting life with his wife Eleeshuse, who would also become a renown graphic artist. Parr settled permanently in Kinngait in 1961 due to ill health. Terry Ryan, the same year, encouraged Parr to try drawing. Parr was 68 years old at the time. Observers disagree as to the first medium Parr worked in: one source commented that his first works used graphite on paper, another noted that he worked in pencil with a sketch pad.

In his short career as an artist Parr produced over 2,000 drawings and contributed 34 prints to the annual Cape Dorset print collections. Parr's drawings are regarded as a record for future generations of the traditional hunting and nomadic lifestyle of the Inuit.

The artist had nine children many of whom also became artists.

Exhibitions

• 21 X 12 (Eskimo Drawing Exhibition), Inuk 1 Gallery
• 4th National Burnaby Print Show, Burnaby Art Society
• A New Day Dawning: Early Cape Dorset Prints, University of Michigan
• A Retrospective View, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• A Tribute to Cape Dorset Male Artists, Inukshuk Gallery
• Arctic Spirit 35 Years of Canadian Inuit Art, Frye Art Museum
• ART ESKIMO, Galerie de France
• Basically Birds, Snow Goose Associates
• Canadian Eskimo Art: a representative exhibition from the collection of Professor and Mrs. Philip Gray, Fine Arts Gallery, Montana State University
• Canadian Eskimo Arts Festival, Alaska Methodist University Galleries
• Cape Dorset - A Decade of Eskimo Prints & Recent Sculpture, National Gallery of Canada, in cooperation with the Canadian Eskimo Art Committee
• Cape Dorset Engravings, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• Cape Dorset Engravings, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, circulated by the Art Gallery of Ontario
• Cape Dorset Engravings and Etchings from the Sixties, Arctic Artistry
• Cape Dorset Graphics *61, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *62, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *63, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *64/65, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *66, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *67, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *68, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *69, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *70, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *74, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Impressions: Inuit Stonecut and Stencil Print Techniques, National Gallery of Canada
• Cape Dorset Printmaking 1959-1989, McMichael Canadian Collection
• Cape Dorset Prints: Twenty-Five Years, National Gallery of Canada
• Cape Dorset Revisited, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Cape Dorset Revisited - a collection of previously unreleased prints, exhibited at selected commercial galleries, organized by, West Baffin Eskimo Co-op
• Cape Dorset Through the Years: 25 Years of Graphics and Sculpture, Arctic Artistry
• Contemporary Canadian Eskimo Art, Gimpel Fils
• Contemporary Inuit Art, National Gallery of Canada
• Contemporary Inuit Drawings, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre
• Contemporary Inuit Drawings, Muscarelle Museum of Art College of William and Mary
• Drawings by Parr, The Art Shop, Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal
• Drawings by Parr of Cape Dorset, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Drawings of the 1960s from Cape Dorset, Feheley Fine Arts in association with Gimpel Fils, London, England
• Eskimo Art, Queens Museum
• Eskimo Carvings and Prints from the Collection of York University, Art Gallery of York University
• Eskimo Drawings Cape Dorset, Isaacs Gallery
• Eskimo Games: Graphics and Sculpture/ Giuochi Eschimesi: grafiche e sculture, National Gallery of Modern Art
• Eskimo Narrative, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Espaces Inuit, Maison Hamel-Bruneau
• Etchings and Engravings from Cape Dorset, 1962-1967, Feheley Fine Arts
• From Drawing to Print: Perceptions and Process in Cape Dorset Art, Glenbow Museum
• Graphic Art by Eskimos of Canada: First Collection, Cultural Affairs Division, Department of External Affairs, Canada
• Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art, Art Gallery of Ontario
• Hunters of Old, Inukshuk Galleries Inc.
• 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
• Images of the Far North, Studio Art Gallery, State University of New York
• Images of the Inuit: from the Simon Fraser Collection, Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
• In Cape Dorset We Do It This Way: Three Decades of Inuit Printmaking, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Inoonoot Eskima: Grafik och Skulptur fran Cape Dorset och Povungnituk, Konstframjandet
• Inuit Art From the Glenbow Collection, Glenbow Museum
• Inuit Art: Drawings and Recent Sculpture, National Gallery of Canada
• Inuit Drawings, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Inuit Games/Inuit Pinguangit/Jeux des inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• Inuit Graphic Art from Indian & Northern Affairs Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Graphics and Drawings from 1959-1990, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Graphics from the Collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal
• Inuit Graphics from the Past, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Graphics Through the Year: Rare Prints from the Arctic, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Masterworks: Selections from the Collection of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, McMichael Canadian Collection
• Inuit Traditions in Graphics: 1961-1987, Arctic Artistry
• New Beginnings: a celebration of Native expression at the first Native Business Summit, Metro Toronto Convention Centre
• Noel au Chateau - Art inuit de la collection Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Guelph, Ontario presented at Chateau Dufresne
• On Collectors and Collecting: Selections from the Herb & Cece Schreiber Family Collection, The Art Gallery of Hamilton
• On the Land, The Arctic Circle
• Parr (1893-1969), Aux Multiples Collections
• Parr: A Print Retrospective, Gallery One
• Parr: His Drawings, Mount Saint Vincent University
• Parr: Original Drawings, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Retrospective Print Show and Release of "Arts of the Eskimo: Prints", The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Return to Origins, The Arctic Circle
• Return to Origins II, The Arctic Circle
• Small Sculptures from across the Canadian Arctic, Feheley Fine Arts
• Spoken in Stone: an exhibition of Inuit Art, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
• Stones, Bones, Cloth, and Paper: Inuit Art in Edmonton Collections, Edmonton Art Gallery
• The Art of the Eskimo, Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
• The Cape Dorset Print, Presented at Rideau Hall by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
• The Dorset Group of Four - Drawings and Prints by Kenojuak, Lucy, Parr and Pitseolak, Canadiana Galleries
• The Hunting Existence: Men and Animals Depicted in Sculpture and Prints, Arctic Artistry
• The Inuit Print/L'estampe inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the National Museum of Man
• 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 Woodget Collection of Eskimo Art and Artifacts, Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Art
• The World Around Me, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery
• The Zazelenchuk Collection of Eskimo Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Transformation, The Arctic Circle
• Ulu/Inua: Form and Fantasy in Eskimo Art, Casino Gallery, Ravinia Park
• 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

Collections

• Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston
• Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth
• Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax
• Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor
• Art Gallery of York University, Downsview
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown
• Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City
• Denver Art Museum, Denver
• Department of Foreign Affairs, Ottawa
• Glenbow Museum, Calgary
• Klamer Family Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Laurentian University Museum and Arts Centre, Sudbury
• London Regional Art Gallery, London
• Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
• Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon
• Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal
• Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, Montreal
• Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife
• Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
• Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby
• Toronto-Dominion Bank Collection, Toronto
• University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge
• Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
• Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg