The youngest of eight brothers and one sister, Judas Ullulaq was born in 1937 at Thom Bay, a small settlement located on the Boothia Peninsula. His parents and relatives were members of the Netsilingmuit, or Netsilik (“people of the seal”). Ullulaq grew up watching his father and older brothers hunt and fish for food. In later years he recalled that the family would also trap white fox, trading pelts for ammunition and other store goods at a nearby Hudson’s Bay Company post. He moved to the larger Netsilik community of Taloyoak in 1966/67, by which time he had a wife and family of his own. At Taloyoak he began making sculptures in whalebone, a material that had recently come into use at that community. Many of Ullulaq’s brothers, including Charlie Ugyuk (1931-1998) and Nelson Takkiruq (1930-1999), also took up carving at this time, as did their soon-to-be famous nephew, Karoo Ashevak (1940-1974). In 1982 he moved to Gjoa Haven, another Netsilik community to the west, where he would remain for the rest of his life. By then he had also started carving in stone, and was beginning to gain a reputation for meticulous craftsmanship and a dynamic yet whimsically expressive style. His first solo exhibition was at Toronto’s Inuit Gallery in 1983. One of the best known and most beloved of northern artists, Ullulaq died in 1999 of lung cancer at his home in Gjoa Haven.

Along with Nick Sikkuark, Charlie Ugyuk, Karoo Ashevak and others, Ullulaq was one of the founder members of the so-called Netsilik “school” of fantastic art, a small but illustrious group of sculptors who rose to prominence in the 1980s and 90s following Ashevak’s brilliant breakthroughs of the early 70s. Working in combinations of media including whalebone, stone, caribou antler and sinew, these artists produced images that are dramatic, sometimes humorous, often extravagant and not infrequently grotesque. Nelson Graburn describes their work as “super expressionism.” George Swinton observed that “these artists do not merely describe the spirit world, they are in it.” While Ullulaq’s work has much in common with that of his peers, including a propensity for shamanistic imagery and formal asymmetry, his images are generally more jocular and good-humored, like the man himself. Similarly, his bulging and thrusting forms are, if not the least representational in Netsilik art, then certainly the most beautifully baroque.

HONORS, ACHIEVEMENTS AND EVENTS:

1985 Traveled to New York to attend the opening of the exhibition ‘Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art of Canada’, which was held at the General Assembly Building of the United Nations. The day following this opening, Judas attended the opening of his solo exhibition at the Alaska Shop.

1988 Attended the opening of the exhibition ‘In the Shadow of the Sun’ in Dortmund, Germany on Dec. 9th.

1989 June: Attended the opening of the ‘Masters of the Arctic’ exhibition in New York.

1991 The carving ‘Legendary Woman’ appeared on the cover of the Oct./Nov. issue of Up Here magazine.

COLLECTIONS:

Amway Environmental Foundation Collection, Ada Michigan, USA
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Dennos Museum Center
Northwestern Miccigan College, Traverse City, Michigan, USA
Inuit Cultural Institute, Rankin Inlet, Northwest Territories
Klamer Family Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario
Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal, Quebec
Museum of Anthropology, University of BC, Vancouver, BC.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Sarick Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba