Settlement: Povungnituk / Puvirnituq, Nunavik (Quebec) / Disc Number # E9-1721

Leah Qumaluk is an established and well recognized Inuk artist in Canada. She was born in Inukjuak, Quebec.  In 1954, Qumaluk and her husband, Josie Qumaluk, settled in Puvirnituq (former name Povungnituk); a northern village in Nunavik near Hudson Bay in northern Quebec. In the beginning of her career, she began stone carving before later experimenting with stoneblock printing in 1960. She was not only the creator of the concepts of her prints but also undertook the printmaking process herself – creating hundreds of editions for other artists, as she worked full time at a printmaking shop.  She created ninety-five of her own prints during her career. Early prints were dominated by mythological themes or demons from her own imagination. The subjects in her art were later replaced with more benign subjects such as arctic animals and depictions of traditional life. Her style is different from that of other Puvirnituq artists in that she did not use the border of the uncut block to frame her images.

Qumaluk's work are in numerous public collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to name a few.