6. Fishermens Folly (2004)

Kavavaow was born in Brandon, Manitoba in 1958 where his mother, Paunichea, was hospitalized for treatment of tuberculosis. He returned to Cape Dorset as a very young child and has lived there since.

Kavavaow has demonstrated a range of stylistic abilities over the years — from the very literal to the more expressive. His thematic concerns include depictions of Inuit legends and mythology, Arctic wildlife and an interest in some of the more contemporary aspects of Inuit life. He has a penchant for placing his human characters in bizarre and challenging situations, well illustrated in this year's Dark Fantasy (2008). In this very successful rendering in etching and aquatint by Studio PM in Montreal, the lone kayak hunter has apparently met his match. But Kavavaow's work is never without humour and imagination and these might still save the day.

Kavavaow is the latest among the second generation to attract critical acclaim from the contemporary arts audience in the south. He and Suvinai Ashoona were profiled, along with Nick Sikkuark of Gjoa Haven, in the recent spring issue of the Winnipeg-based arts magazine, Border Crossings, and he travelled to Toronto in June for his first solo exhibition of original drawings.

For several years Kavavaow has worked for the Kinngait Studios as a printmaker — first in the lithography studio and more recently in the stonecut studio. He is an accomplished and precise printmaker who enjoys the opportunity to demonstrate printmaking techniques to young artists and visitors to the studio.

Kavavaow lives with his wife and son Peter in Cape Dorset.

—Cape Dorset Print Collection, 2008