From the Louvre in Paris to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, Abraham Anghik Ruben 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.
Anghik Ruben’s first solo show in a museum was presented by the WAG in 2001. Now, almost 25 years later, the artist returns, but this time to Qaumajuq, Canada’s Inuit art centre. Abraham Anghik Ruben will be the first solo show in Qaumajuq’s flagship Qilak gallery, the largest exhibition space dedicated to Inuit art in the world.
Currently based in Salt Spring Island, BC, Anghik Ruben’s art can be found in many prominent public, corporate, and private collections with more than 30 pieces in the WAG-Qaumajuq collection, including the monumental outdoor sculpture Time to Play that welcomes visitors to the Gallery.
This exhibition features over 100 artworks including sculptures and paintings produced from 1975 to 2025, and brings into focus important milestones in Anghik Ruben’s life. This personal perspective is different from his past shows around the globe, and shares what was happening in the artist’s world when he was making his extraordinary pieces. Additionally, this show explores Inuit myth and legends, as well as Nordic peoples and history in particular Inuit and Viking contact.
This exhibition will follow Abraham Anghik Ruben’s journey from reclaiming Inuit culture, to being comfortable as an individual with broad interests, and finally being celebrated as an artist worthy of representing humanity as a whole.” —Heather Campbell, Guest Curator
Artist & Curator
Abraham Anghik Ruben Abraham Anghik Ruben
Powerful, compelling, exquisite are but a few of the words to describe the work of master sculptor Abraham Anghik Ruben. Stories, myths, and legends of ancient Northern cultures find new life and expression through his work. Linked by strong narratives, his sculptures speak of cultures lost and times forgotten.
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. His interest in the stories, myths, and legends of his ancestors are in many of his works, which have been exhibited and collected internationally. In recent years Anghik Ruben has started to explore other cultures and peoples, including Nordic culture. His interest in the parallel cultures of Viking Norse and Inuit have resulted in some of his most powerful works yet.
Heather Campbell Heather Campbell
Heather Campbell (Inuk) is an artist and arts administrator originally from Kikiak (Rigolet), Nunatsiavut, NL currently residing in North West River, NL. Campbell holds a BFA at Wilfred Grenfell College of Fine Art at Memorial University of Newfoundland. In addition to her artistic practice, she has written for Library and Archives Canada and the Inuit Art Quarterly. Campbell is formerly curator for the Inuit Art Centre of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Curatorial Assistant at the Indigenous Art Department of the National Gallery of Canada, and Strategic Initiatives Director at Inuit Art Foundation. Campbell’s art has been in a number of group exhibitions, most recently the touring group exhibition “SakKijajuk: Inuit Fine Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut.”
Photo: Brecken Photography
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