Palaya Qiatsuq was born in Cape Dorset and began carving around 1977. He learned to carve from his father, the well-known sculptor and print maker Lukta Qiatsuk. Padlaya works in soapstone and bone, and carves each sculpture with much attention to detail.
"I like to carve transformations. That's one of my favourite themes, and shamanism… when I do transformation or shamanism carvings, I hope the younger people will see the carving in a book or in a gallery. I want them to know that these traditions have to be carried out. How do I put this? They have to know that our ancestors had a hard time to live, to hunt. Sometimes they were starving. Those carvings are important to me and I want to show these younger people, and others, that this happened before."
Also known as Padlaya, Qiatsoo, Qiatsuk.
Born on May 10, 1965 in Cape Dorset, NU. Nationality is Inuit
Exhibitions
2001 Small Sculptures By Great Artists, Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
2000 Padlaya Qiatsuk: The Artist's Hand Inuit Sculpture Portfolio, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
2000 Seven Emerging Artists From Cape Dorset, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
1998 Sculpture From The Canadian Arctic, Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
1997 Singing & Dancing & Playing, Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
1997 Stone & Bonde, The Inuit Master Carvers of the Canadian Arctic, The Northwest Company, Sun Valley Centre for the Arts and
Humanities, Ketchum, ID
1996 Small Sculptures by Great Artists V, Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, ON
1995 Miniaturen, Inuit Galerie, Mannheim, Germany
1994 The Great Northern Arts Festival, Inuvik, NU
1994 Three Young Carvers From Cape Dorset and Drawing by Aoudla Pudlat, Albers Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1993 Sculpture and Graphics from Cape Dorset, Art Space Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1993 The Next Generation - Inuit Sculpture, Gallery Indigena, Stratford, ON
1993 The Theme of Transformation in Inuit Sculpture,The Isaacs/Innuit Gallery, Toronto, ON
1991 Granville Island Canadian Inuit Sculpture Exhibition, Vancouver Inuit Art Society, Vancouver, BC
1989 Arctic Images: Major Sculptures by Canada's Leading Contemporary Inuit Artists, D/Erlien Fine Art Ltd, Milwaukee, WI
1989 Masters of the Arctic: An Exhibition of Contemporary Inuit Masterworks, Amway Corporation, United Nations General Assembly, New
York, NY
1988 Tundra and Ice: Stone Images of Animals and Man, Orca Aart, Chicago, IL
1987 L'art Inuit, l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chambre de Commerce de Chateauroux, France
1986 L'art et la Matiere: Peintures au Sable de Claude Durand - Sculptures d'Art Esquimaux Conseil Municipal, Deauville-Touques, France
1986 A New Selection of Masterful Sculptures from Cape Dorset, Houston North Gallery, Lunenburg, NS
Our Land Transforming: Celebrating the Enduring Spirit of the Inuit, Arctic Raven Gallery, Friday Harbour, WA
Collections
Amway Environmental Foundation Collection, Ada, MI
Publications
2005 Cape Dorset Sculpture FEATURED PAGE 98, 99
1989 MASTERS OF THE ARCTIC: An Exhibition of Contemporary Inuit Masterworks, Ada, MI, Amway Corporation
