Markoosie Etidloi Kagulik is a multidisciplinary artist from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, who has been immersed in art since childhood. His work encompasses various mediums, including sculpture and drawing.
Etidloi Kagulik comes from a highly artistic family whose practices surrounded him with sculpture and prints at an early age. His grandmother, Atumi Tukkiqi, was a graphic artist, and his grandfather, Etidloi Etidloi, and father, Ningeotseak Eitdloi, were sculptors. “My grandmother’s prints were a major inspiration,” he says, reflecting on how seeing her work kindled his passion for printmaking. [1] Etidloi Kagulik’s artistic journey began in earnest during his school years, when he participated in a drawing competition around age 14 and won first prize with a fish-themed work. His subsequent years were filled with learning and creating alongside his relatives; his stepfather Ohito Ashoona, a recognized sculptor in his own right, was an influential early teacher whose sculptures Etidloi Kagulik would frequently help polish.
From his teens to his thirties, Etidloi Kagulik worked primarily with sculpture, but after age forty he transitioned to drawing, which is the mainstay of what he produces today. Despite the change in mediums, Etidloi Kagulik’s subject matter has remained consistent: “growing up, I was inspired by the animals and the land around me,” he says, explaining that the natural world and his experiences hunting and living on the land shaped the subjects he depicts in both mediums, such as caribou, polar bears and other wildlife. His pencil crayon work Fishing at Fishing Weir (2024) features a maze-like fishing weir, bounded by rocks whose colours range from chocolate to caramel.
Etidloi Kagulik’s tenure at the Kenojuak Ashevak Cultural Centre in Kinngait was a transformative period, where he drew inspiration from fellow artists and refined his craft. “Kinngait is the art capital of the world,” he says proudly, reflecting on the tremendous impact that growing up in the community has had on his artistic practice. While Etidloi Kagulik continues to visit the Centre to pick up drawing materials, he does the bulk of his work from home.
Etidloi Kagulik achieved a milestone in 2023 when his artworks her exhibited publicly for the first time: drawings Fishing at Fishing Weir and One Hungry Wolf (2024) were both shown at the 14th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea as part of the exhibition Once a Myth, Becoming Real (2023). He is currently working to produce larger works with vibrant colors, a new direction he hopes will broaden the horizons of his artistic practice.