Johnny Saggiatok
Artist Biography - b. 1964, Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU
Johnny Sagiatuk (Sageaktok) was born on December 11, 1964. He resides in Cape Dorset, Baffin Island. This community boasts more famous artists per capita than any other region in Northwest Territories. Johnny's parents, Sagiatuk and Kakulu, are also artists in Cape Dorset.
Johnny mostly draws his inspiration from Arctic wildlife and carves a wide range of subject matter, Polar bear being his favourite. His carvings of animals are naturalistically rendered, with smooth and flowing curves and subtle details.
The stone Johnny uses, called serpentine, is unique to Baffin Island. It is a very hard stone, varying in colour from light green to brown and black, often with golden veining in it. Johhny's sculpture is usually highly polished to best exhibit the beauty of the stone.
EXHIBITIONS:
June -July 1990 Small Sculptures from across the Canadian Arctic
Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario
December 1990 New Miniature Sculpture Gallery Phillip,
Don Mills, Ontario
September -Nov. 1993 The Bear: Sculpture Albers Gallery,
San Francisco, California
November -Dec. 1993 Treasured Monument * Marion Scott Gallery,
Vancouver, British Columbia
December 1993 Small Sculpture by Great Artists II
Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario
November- Dec. 1995 Miniaturen * Inuit Galerie,
Mannheim, Geffilany
COLLECTIONS:
Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Brunswick, Maine, U.S.A.
SELECTED REFERENCES :
Marion Scott Gallery The Treasured Monument:
An Exhibition of Small-scale Inuit Sculpture. Vancouver: Marion Scott Gallery, 1993.
