69/150 – Abraham Anghik Ruben: Preserving Inuvialuit Culture

Inuk artist Abraham Anghik Ruben has five decades of his work on exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery until the spring of 2026, the first solo show in Qilak gallery, the world’s largest exhibition space dedicated to Inuit art.

Anghik Ruben has become a major innovative force among contemporary Inuit sculptors. His imagery derives from the rich early history of the Arctic in North America, bringing together the myths, legends, and stories of the early Viking expeditions to the New World and that of his ancestral Inuit peoples.

Born in Paulatuk, Northwest Territories in 1951, Anghik Ruben creates his powerful and compelling sculptures with exquisite detail at his studio in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Anghik Ruben is one of Canada’s most celebrated contemporary artists. From the Louvre in Paris to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, he has been featured in exhibitions around the globe. The master sculptor received the Order of Canada in 2016 for his contribution to the art world, and for preserving his Inuvialuit culture.

Born in 1951, Anghik Ruben’s early life was spent in a nomadic lifestyle, with the daily pursuit of food and shelter, a never-ending cycle. These early years gave him the foundation of family, cultural, and spiritual ties to the Inuit way of life. This family-oriented life was severed at the age of eight when Anghik Ruben was sent to residential school. After eleven years of school, he left having lost his culture, community connection, and language.

Anghik Ruben’s quest to reconnect with his past found artistic form in 1971 when he attended the Native Arts Centre at the University of Alaska, studying under Ronald Senungetuk. Throughout the 1970s Anghik Ruben pursued the arts in the varied media of sculpture, jewelry, prints, and drawings, eventually catching the attention of art dealers across Canada.

In 1986 he moved to Salt Spring Island, BC where he continues to live and work with his family. 

Abraham Anghik Ruben’s website, here.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery exhibition page for his solo retrospective, here.

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This is No. 69 in 150 Artists, an ongoing series on Canadian artists you should know.