Kananginak in front of the Houston North Gallery

Kananginak Pootoogook has attained an international reputation for his abilities as a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor. He was one of the first in Cape Dorset to actively participate in the first experimental attempts at fine-art printing introduced to the community by James Houston in 1957.

Kananginak continued as a printmaker until 1978, working in all media including stonecut, stencil, copper engraving, and silkscreen on fabric. Later he became proficient in lithography including executing his own drawings directly on the stone. He has established an international reputation as an artist for his close observation of nature and his sensitive rendering of animals and birds. For Kananginak Pootoogook, art - whether his sculptures or his hundreds of drawings and prints - is a means of keeping his Inuit traditions alive in the face of tremendous cultural pressures and change. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1980.