Ashevak Adla

Inuit Native Artist Ashevak Adla from Cape Dorset

Cape Dorset

Ashevak Adla was born on February 22, 1977, at the nursing station in Cape Dorset, Baffin Island, Nunavut. He is the eldest child of Kumajuk and David Adla, and the grandson of Cape Dorset carver Audla Pee.

It was his grandfather, Audla, who taught him how to carve. At the age of eleven, Ashevak used to watch Audla making carvings of birds, and soon he could not help but try out his grandfather’s tools. Adla also learned a lot by watching Nuna Parr and his late son, Jutani, carving bears.

Adla’s first pieces were simple carvings, such as the heads of birds or seals, but it was not long before he ventured into depicting more complex subject matter. He has since become one of the most promising Cape Dorset carvers of the younger generation.

Adla excels in depicting walking and dancing bears, birds with widely open wings, and playful, carefree seals and walrus. He carves in serpentine, a metamorphic rock indigenous to Baffin Island, with varying green, brown, or black colour. Adla tends to polish his carvings to a high degree to best exhibit the beauty of the stone.

Works by this Artist (Present + Past + Public)

Present Works

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Past Works

The artist’s Past Works at our Gallery have now sold; however, a custom order may be possible if the artist is available and accepting commissions.