Juanisialu Irqumia

Juanisialuk Irqumia was born in 1917 and was one of the original inhabitants of Puvirnituq, Nunavik. He worked in sculpture, printmaking, and drawing. An introverted person, Irqumia preferred to carve alone at home and worked directly on stone blocks without preliminary drawings. His subjects included families, birds, hunting scenes, and people at work. His carvings were firmly rooted in realism and rarely addressed Inuit mythology.

Irqumia was one of approximately 40 people who survived being stranded on a melting ice floe, an event often depicted in the sculptures of fellow Puvirnituq artist Joe Talirunili. Many people drowned during the ordeal, including Irqumia's sister Annie and her two children. Irqumia was said to have suffered from "kayak anxiety," possibly a form of agoraphobia that caused disorientation in open spaces and prevented him from going out in a kayak on open water. Scholars have suggested this condition influenced his artistic approach, noting that he avoided open planes by using the boundary of the stone or landscape to circumscribe his subjects, and that his prints always feature more than one figure firmly anchored in defined space.

Though Irqumia likely began carving before 1956, few examples from that period exist. His carvings from the 1960s are particularly accomplished and often incorporate a sophisticated use of negative space. Family scenes show figures clearly defined as individuals while embracing or working side by side, typically carved from a single stone with elements linked by a common base. In 1962, under technical advisor Victor Tinkl, the Povungnituk Co-operative began printmaking, and Irqumia was one of 24 artists selected for the first Puvirnituq print collection. His prints depicted daily activities—hunting, drying skins, travelling—as well as animals, particularly caribou. He often included syllabic text descriptions in his prints. He worked consistently until 1976 and died in 1977.

Irqumia's work has been exhibited internationally in New York, Germany, and Sweden, as well as throughout North America. In 1967, his carvings were included in The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, a centennial exhibition.