Brian Kowikchuk

Growing up watching his mother draw flowers, Inuvik, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT-based Brian Kowikchuk was always inspired to create art. Although he now prefers to work in acrylic paint, he began to explore art in high school by sketching portraits and has worked in charcoal, oil paints, watercolour and digital paint apps. 

Kowikchuk’s practice centres on landscape images, inuksuit, full moons and birds, especially ravens and owls. An arts advocate as well as an artist, he teaches classes in painting in his community and works with The Artist’s Hub in Inuvik where he intends to build community resiliency through arts programming. Using an expressive colour palette, Kowikchuk passes on signature techniques of his practice to his students, demonstrating how to create peaceful lake scenes and glowing northern lights. 

“I plan on working with the public with The Artists Hub to use art as a window to help our people understand the different ways art is therapy”, he says, “It can be used to express ourselves and as a tool for mental health.” [1]

This Profile was made possible through support from RBC Emerging Artists.