Jobie Uqaituk, also known as Jobie Ohaituk, is a contemporary Inuit artist born in the year 1946 in Kutaaq, Quebec, Canada. Kutaaq is just north of Inukjuak, Quebec, Canada. Jobie Uqaituk is renown for his sculptures of birds, hunters, and shaman. Many shaman works are half human and half animal.
His early works were in much the same style of his peers, figurative works in a modernist style. Because many artists in his region of Canada worked with primitive tools at the beginning of his career, as a result many works seem raw or unfinished.
Uqaituk pushed himself to another level higher than his peers with the ability to work with many modern tools. The modern tools allowed the artist to put more details and a greater finish in his work. As a result of this, his artwork is heavily sought after by collectors.
Ohaituk takes tremendous pride in bringing his stones to life.
Price range information: Most sculpture works range between $1,000 and $4,000. In the 1970s Uqaituk was an avid printmaker but no price range is available for these works.
What I enjoy most about this artist is his creativity. His shaman transformation works are a great example of realism and imagination . Jobie Uqaituk talks about trying to show the “Inuitness” of things. For some reason I thought back to Albert Durer and the best painting I have ever seen by a rabbit in person. Durer when asked about this work often times talked about capturing the “rabbitness” of the subject. I found the two artists very similar in their approach to creating representational art. Not only are you trying to capture what a rabbit looks like, but also what it feels like. Uqaituk captures the “Inuitness” of hunters and shaman with excellence.
Uqaituk tries to keep the old way of doing things and the Inuit lifestyle of the past alive through his carvings.
The artist made his first stone carving when he was ten years old. It was of a bird. I enjoy artists who keep it simple and Uqaituk is a great example of an artist in complete harmony with his surroundings, the artist loves to carve and hunt.
Uqaituk made prints in the early 1970s.
Bombardier, a Canadian based aerospace company, presented a work of Uqaituk to former United States President George W. Bush.
What an outstanding artist!
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