The great Arviat minimalist sculptor Andy Miki almost always carved in stone. His occasional antler figures are mostly quite rudimentary, made from cylindrical sections of the material. Exceptional, however, is a small handful of animal “plaques” that Miki fashioned from larger, flat pieces of caribou antler known as brow tines. Of the three examples we know of, Wolf Plaque from the Winnipeg Art Gallery collection is as large as our example and equally fine. (It, and a similar Animal Plaque in stone, are illustrated in Norman Zepp’s Pure Vision catalogue, cats. 10 and 11.) The third antler work, sold at Walker’s Auctions in Nov. 2017 (Lot 38), is a smaller, charming work. We suspect that it, and our superb specimen, depict foxes rather than wolves – but that, as with the identification of so many Miki animal figures, is open to debate! Remarkably, all these plaques are carved as “pendants”; whether they were made to hang on a wall or float freely like mobiles is also open to discussion. Notably, none of the four plaques is carved with the characteristic eyes we associate with Miki’s work (which makes us wonder about a possible spiritual interpretation). They really do seem to constitute a separate class of artistic object. Fantastic.