Axangayuk Shaa

His exquisite dancing walrus has several parallels in the Cape Dorset stone carving style; they demonstrates the truly extraordinary carving bravura of the 82 year old Axangayuk Shaa, who began carving at the tender age of 17. Not only is this work exceptional in its degree of openwork carving and detail, it is also highly expressive and energetic.

Never has there been an artist quite like Axangayuk Shaa who continuously releases gorgeous pieces of art... and my heart literally skips a beat every single time. 

His walruses are world famous because of their strong sense of dynamics, motion and beautiful proportions. “He captures the spirit and vigorous movement for a total effect…concentrating on special interaction, expressive qualities and overall form…his carvings are compact, robust, solid…with outward dynamic forms…”.

The man is a living legend that puts him on the level of all other great carvers of centuries past. His ability to capture the essence and raw beauty of the mammal is greatly enhanced with his choices of brilliant colored stones. This renders his walrus into carvings that set apart from all other artists.

Currently, He lives in Cape Dorset, Baffin Island with his wife, Kilabuk Shaa, who is also a carver. Three of their sons, Pudalik, Qiatsuq and Qavavau Shaa are also carvers in Cape Dorset.

Browse our Axangauyk Shaa offerings here.

"A grandson of the carver Kiakshuk and the only child of artists Paunichea and Munamee Davidee, Aqjangajuk began carving at the age of seventeen. He participated in the early drawing projects of Cape Dorset but realized his strengths lay in sculpture and did not draw after 1970. Only one graphic by him, Wounded Caribou, was ever released, in the 1961 Cape Dorset annual print collection. His work was in the famous 1971-73 touring exhibition "Sculpture/Inuit. Sculpture of the Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic". Since 1970, he has had 11 solo exhibitions, as well as appearing in many group shows, and his work is in many major museum collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York." - from "Cape Dorset Sculpture", Douglas & McIntyre, 2005

Axangayuk Shaa was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2003. Academicians are elected to membership of the RCA on the basis of their significant body of work that has been recognized by their peers in the discipline of their choice for its excellence and innovation. Candidates are nominated and brought forward by seven RCA members in good standing for review by the Membership Committee, which is a multi-discipline body representing all regions of Canada.

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