Sikkuark completely mastered Western pictorial conventions with his drawn landscapes and figures, but the resulting drawings are entirely his vision. His human figures are usually disquieting or bizarre in appearance, their faces more caricatures than portraits. As Robert Kardosh suggests in both his Nick Sikkuark catalogue essay and his IAQ article, Sikkuark’s profile views of his subjects “allows the artist to give intentional emphasis to their strongly contoured features, thus rendering them almost like deformities.” Sikkuark’s own caption for this remarkable drawing stresses the comedic over the unsettling: Don't laugh at me. I am cleaning my nose because it's itchy. Similar “string” imagery can be found in the artist’s sculpture, and interestingly, also in the sculpture of Karoo Ashevak.

References: For a discussion of Sikkuark’s use of black paper see, Marion Scott Gallery, The Art of Nick Sikkuark: Sculpture and Drawings, (Vancouver: Marion Scott Gallery, 2003), pp. 17-23. See the section on the artist in Darlene Coward Wight, Art & Expression of the Netsilik, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2000), pp. 32-43. For a selection of the artist’s faces and his humour, see Nick Sikkuark, Faces (Northwest Territories. Dept. of Education & Keewatin Region Education Office, 1973).