Harold Qarliksaq worked at the nickel mine in Naujaat (Rankin Inlet) before relocating to Qamani’tuaq in the early 1960s so that his young children could attend school. He began to draw in the 1970s, encouraged by Jack and Sheila Butler to supplement his trapping income. While Qarliksaq contributed only about twenty prints to the Baker Lake annual catalogues before his death in 1980, sculptures by his hand are notably rare [1].

This small antler figure, while unsigned, is identified as Qarliksaq by an affixed tag and bears striking compositional similarities to his graphic work. The style is marked by a deliberate simplicity and a restrained approach to form. The head, oversized in relation to the body, features a high forehead, a long triangular nose, and eyes that are deeply set and positioned just above the midpoint of the face. The mouth is reduced to a shallow incised line, lending the figure an air of self-containment rather than overt expression.

The body leans slightly, contributing to a subtle sense of weight or presence. Arms are suggested only by a pair of incised lines, and the entire figure is carved with an economy of means that nonetheless communicates individuality and intent. As in Qarliksaq’s drawings, the emphasis is not on realism but on evocation, on distilling the essence of character into minimal marks and forms. The result is a work that feels both emblematic and intimate, a sculptural echo of the same pared-down visual language that defines his contributions to the Baker Lake print catalogue.