October 2 to December 21, 2025
List of available artworks
Carving Memory brings together the three sculptors : Abraham Anghik Ruben, David Ruben Piqtoukun, and Ruben Anton Komangapik, in a two-part exhibition featuring treasures from our collection and some of their most recent works.
With a unique and recognizable touch, the Ruben rank among the most celebrated artists in Canadian Inuit art. David Ruben Piqtoukun and Abraham Anghik Ruben are brothers by blood, while Ruben Anton Komangapik has a brotherly bond with his mentor David. Each artist, through their own personal imprint, shares a deep connection to their roots, culture, and spirituality. In their own ways, they evoke legends and family histories. Stories of healing and resilience are central and told through generational wisdom and experience and knowledge of colonial violence. To tell stories one must first remember. The three artists have chosen to share their world through stone, bronze, bone, and ivory to remember who they are and where they came from.
The gallery space showcases magnificent recent works of David Ruben Piqtoukun and Ruben Anton Komangapik. Belonging to two different generations—David the elder, Anton the younger—they share a sensibility deeply nourished by spirituality, the transmission of ancestral knowledge, and a profound connection with their culture. Their distinct histories open an intergenerational perspective: their works respond to one another, each asserting its own artistic voice.
David Ruben Piqtoukun and Ruben Anton Komangapik are virtuosic in their compositions of transformations, animals, and shamanism. Charged with powerful symbols drawn from Inuit legends and lived experience, their sculptures transport us between past and present. Deeply engaged, some works evoke the memory of colonial violence while affirming the power of resilience. Their creations become both a path of healing and a way of reconnecting, to oneself, to Inuit heritage, and to the collective.
In close dialogue with the gallery space, the permanent collection features an exhibition centered on the works of Abraham Anghik Ruben. Combining meticulous aesthetics and narratives inspired by encounters among Circumpolar and Nordic peoples, Abraham Anghik Ruben speaks of connections between these cultures, myths and spirituality. His inspiration stems from a desire to tell the stories passed down to him, a way of transmuting the scars left by residential schools. Through his work, he seeks to reconnect with his identity and culture, and today stands among the great masters of Inuit sculpture.
Inuit believe in the presence of a soul, or inua, in every living being, and the concept of reincarnation lies at the heart of family and community beliefs. With these concepts in mind, the thread that unites the Ruben becomes clear: it is not only the transmission of stories and culture, but also the honoring of continuity between their ancestors, future generations, and themselves.
This exhibition is a curatorial project by the team at La Guilde : Sharon Fontaine-Ishpatao, My-Van Dam, France Cantin et Lassena Coulibaly.
Opening : Thursday, October 2nd at 5:30p.m., artists will be present.