The Vivid Scenes in Andrew Qappik's Prints

“My ideas are mostly of my culture and our history.”
— Andrew Qappik, interview with the IAQ, 2008


My favourite works of art have worlds within them. The past, present, and future are laid out in a single image, allowing us a brief peek into an artist’s personal universe. This rich sense of fullness permeates the work of Andrew Qappik, a printmaker and graphic artist who was born just outside of Panniqtuuq, NU, in the summer fishing camp Nunataq. His precocious talent for vividly capturing contemporary Inuit life led him to be first scouted by an art collector at 14 years old. 

Now living in Panniqtuuq, a historical centre of Inuit printmaking, Qappik is widely regarded as a master of the form. I am fascinated by the way he portrays dynamic relationships between his subjects and their environments, whether it’s a lone person in a print shop or a family of seals playing under the ice. Below, a few pieces demonstrate the deeply expressive nature of his work. 

Andrew Qappik Self-Portrait in Printshop (2003) COURTESY UQQURMIUT CENTRE FOR ARTS & CRAFTS © THE ARTIST

In Self-Portrait in Printshop (2003), the artist himself can be seen surrounded by his creative tools and their outputs. Self-portraiture is unusual in Inuit printmaking, and Qappik’s inclusion of himself in this piece blends traditional Inuit visual storytelling, as seen in the landscape works behind him, and a style more associated with autobiographical graphic novels: detailed illustrations of figures set against the straight lines of a three-point perspective. The choice to render the scene in black and white also sets this work apart from his more colourful depictions of the outdoors, heightening the decision to lean into a somewhat introspective comic-book-style form. 

Qappik has described his work as a way to translate his experiences and oral stories into a visual form, and that sense of storytelling is on display here; while Qappik stands alone, the windows allow us to see out into the horizon and contextualize this act of printmaking as taking place squarely within Inuit homelands. 

Here, an adult figure carefully wields a kakivak, or spear, to hook fish from underneath the ice as a child looks on with interest and concentration. The balance in colour among the different figures is a kind of harmony: my eye is drawn from the soft brown in the humans’ outerwear to the same shade in the mountains in the background, and the muted green-grey tones of the fish under the water flow upward into the dog’s coat. Negative space in the form of snow and ice gathers the little family together as the focal point of the image. To me, There’s Another One (2012) conveys balance and longevity, a sense of relationship among each of the figures. The adult teaches the child how to fish, and the child will likely then teach their own—my sense is that the cycle will continue on forever, in perfect balance.
 

Andrew Qappik Spring Seals (1993) Stencil 34.4 x 55.9 cm COURTESY FEHELEY FINE ARTS © THE ARTIST

It’s hard not to feel charmed by the sheer playfulness of the seals in this early ’90s work from Qappik. The seals are depicted with so much fluidity and lightness, bustling around each other against a saturated pastel background. Qappik’s sense of dimensionality, creating fully fleshed landscapes that stretch out into the horizon, has often been noted by critics. In Spring Seals (1993), the water takes up most of the print, with an expanse of empty blue underneath the seals creating significant visual depth. The seals seem to be literally swimming into the foreground, with some still back by the icebergs. Though the seals themselves command attention, it’s the background of this work that I love the most. The hazy pink of the sky and the clouds over the mountains invite me to stare off into the sunset, lost in Qappik’s work. 

If Andrew Qappik’s work speaks to you and you are interested in looking at other facets of Inuit printmaking and graphic art, you may be interested in work by painter, illustrator, and printmaker Yurak, from Iqaluit, NU; sculptor and graphic artist Iyola Kingwatsiak; and graphic artist Shuvinai Ashoona, both from Kinngait, NU. 

This Artist Spotlight originally appeared in the May 2026 Inuit Art Quarterly newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter here and be the first to receive new spotlights!