Helen Kalvak was born in 1901 near Tahiryuak Lake on Victoria Island. Her parents introduced her to the traditional modes and seasonal rhythms of the Copper Inuit, spending summers inland in the pursuit of caribou and travelling to the coast at wintertime to hunt seals at breathing holes. Her father was a respected shaman, or angakuk, who is thought to have shared his special knowledge of ritual and the mysterious powers of animal spirits with his daughter and only surviving child. Kalvak also learned from her father how to hunt caribou with a bow and arrow. As a young woman she underwent traditional tattooing to her hands and face, and when she was around twenty years old she married Edward Manayok, a young hunter from the same area with whom she would have several children.
After her husband died in 1960 Kalvak began making regular visits to the nearby settlement of Holman. Here she met Father Henri Tardy, a Roman Catholic missionary with an interest in the legends and traditional culture of the Copper Inuit (so-named for their tools fashioned from locally mined copper). Impressed by her knowledge of Inuit folklore and beliefs, Tardy invited the widowed single mother to make her first drawings, paying for the finished works with much needed cash. In 1961 Kalvak became a founding member of the Holman Co-operative that Tardy helped set up in order to establish printmaking in the community, where she was to settle permanently. Along with Mark Emerak (1901-1983) and Agnes Nanogak (1925- 2001), she emerged as one of Holman's most prominent artists. Between 1965 and 1985, a total of 176 of her images were published as prints and included in the community's annual collections, more than any other Holman artist. By 1978 when Parkinson's disease forced her to give up art making, she had created over 1800 drawings in all. That same year Kalvak was elected a member of the Order of Canada for her artistic contributions and years of service to her community. She died in 1984.
Kalvak's first prints were created in the crisp black-on-white style for which Holman's printmakers became famous (similar red-on-white images would also become common). Elegant and often dramatic, many works depict traditional dancers and people playing games, as well as other scenes from daily life. Many of these activities take place within igloos (or snowhouses), indicated conceptually and symbolically by curving two-dimensional enclosures or partial enclosures representing snow blocks. Numerous images also represent otherworldly spirits and strange, even quirky monster-like apparitions, doubtless reflecting the influence of her early spiritual training. Humour is another common feature of many works. The prints of the 70s and early 80s are often more colourful, usually very subtly so. Kalvak's best-known image is the haunting 1982 lithograph My Hands, starkly portraying a pair of bony arms and hands covered with traditional tattoo markings.
Selected References
Holman: Forty Years of Graphic Art (2001), Darlene Coward Wight
Kalvak/Emerak: Memorial Catalogue (1987), Bernadette Driscoll
 

Exhibitions

• 4th National Burnaby Print Show, Burnaby Art Society
• 50 Inuit Prints, Canadian Arctic Producers in coordination with the Hudson's Bay Company Inuit Art Marketing Service, held at Simpson's
• A Woman's Vision, Art Space Gallery
• Arctic Mirror, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Arctic Spirit 35 Years of Canadian Inuit Art, Frye Art Museum
• Arctic Values '65, New Brunswick Museum with the cooperation of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs
• Arctic Vision: Art of the Canadian Inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Canadian Arctic Producers
• Bears of the North, Snow Goose Associates
• Bering Sea to Baffin Bay, The Arctic Circle
• Borealis: Inuit Images of Man and Animals, Freeport Art Museum and Cultural Centre
• Building on Strengths: New Inuit Art from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Canadian Eskimo Art: a representative exhibition from the collection of Professor and Mrs. Philip Gray, Fine Arts Gallery, Montana State University
• Canadian Eskimo Arts Festival, Alaska Methodist University Galleries
• Canadian/Indian and Eskimo Arts and Crafts, The Snow Goose
• Chisel and Brush/Le ciseau et la brosse, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art of Canada, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Ottawa, presented at the General Assembly Building, United Nations
• Contemporary Inuit Art, National Gallery of Canada
• Contemporary Inuit Drawings, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre
• Contemporary Inuit Drawings, Muscarelle Museum of Art College of William and Mary
• Demons and Spirits and those who wrestled with them, The Arctic Circle
• Die Kunst aus der Arktis, Inuit Galerie, Mannheim held at Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute, University of Siegen at Villa Waldrich
• Die Kunst aus der Arktis, presented by Inuit Galerie
• Eskimo Games: Graphics and Sculpture/ Giuochi Eschimesi: grafiche e sculture, National Gallery of Modern Art
• Eskimo Narrative, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Eskimo Sculpture, Eskimo Prints and Paintings of Norval Morrisseau, Art Association of Newport
• Eskimo Sculptures and Prints including a collection of Carvings by Osowetokla, Hartford National Bank
• Festival of Birds, The Arctic Circle
• Graphic Art by Eskimos of Canada: First Collection, Cultural Affairs Division, Department of External Affairs, Canada
• Helen Kalvak - Print Retrospective, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Helen Kalvak Drawings, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Holman Prints *65, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *66, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *67, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *68, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *69, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *70, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *72, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *73, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *74, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *75/76, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *77, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *79, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *80/81, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *82, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *83, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *84, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *85, (annual collection)
• Hunter of the Sacred Game: Traditional Life on the Land, Organized by the Arts and Learning Services Foundation
• Hunters of Old, Inukshuk Galleries Inc.
• Hunting in the Arctic, Alberta Provincial Museum and Archives
• Im Schatten der Sonne: Zeitgenossische Kunst der Indianer und Eskimos in Kanada/In the Shadow of the Sun: Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art in Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Inuit Art From the Glenbow Collection, Glenbow Museum
• Inuit Art on the Mezzanine: New Acquisitions, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Art: A Selection of Inuit Art from the Collection of the National Museum of Man, Ottawa, and the Rothmans Permanent Collection of Inuit Sculpture, Canada, National Museum of Man, Ottawa and Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd.
• Inuit Games and Contests: The Clifford E. Lee Collection of Prints, University of Alberta
• Inuit Games/Inuit Pinguangit/Jeux des inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• Inuit Graphic Art from Indian & Northern Affairs Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Graphics and Drawings from 1959-1990, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Graphics from the Past, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Graphics Through the Year: Rare Prints from the Arctic, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Images in Transition, Augusta Savage Gallery, University of Massachusetts
• Inuit Myths, Legends and Songs, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Survival, Enook Galleries, Waterloo, Ontario Presented at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery
• Inuit Traditions in Graphics: 1961-1987, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Woman: Life and Legend in Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Women and their Art: Graphics and Wallhangings, Gallery 210, University of Missouri
• Inuitkonst fran Kanada - skulptor och grafik, Millesgarden
• Kalvak & Nanogak, Albers Gallery
• Kalvak - Nanogak Drawings, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Kalvak Retrospective, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Northern Exposure: Inuit Images of Travel, Burnaby Art Gallery
• Patiently I Sing Selections from the Tyler/Brooks Collection, Carleton University Art Gallery
• Polar Vision: Canadian Eskimo Graphics, Jerusalem Artists' House Museum
• Rare Eskimo Prints from Holman Island: a Review 1965-1973, The Arctic Circle
• Shamans and Spirits: Myths and Medical Symbolism in Eskimo Art, Canadian Arctic Producers and the National Museum of Man
• Shamans and Spirits: Myths and Medical Symbolism in Eskimo Art, Arts and Learning Services Foundation (this is a duplicate of the C.A.P. and National Museum of Man exhibition of 1976-1981)
• Stones, Bones, Cloth, and Paper: Inuit Art in Edmonton Collections, Edmonton Art Gallery
• The Arctic/L'Artique, UNESCO
• The Art of Eskimo Women: in Sculpture, Prints, Wall-hangings, The Arctic Circle
• The Coming and Going of the Shaman: Eskimo Shamanism and Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, Toronto-Dominion Bank
• The Eskimo Woman: her life and dreams in prints and sculpture, The Arctic Circle
• The Graphic Art of Helen Kalvak, R.C.A., 1965-1985, Albers Gallery of Inuit Art
• The Inuit Amautik: I Like My Hood To Be Full, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Inuit Print/L'estampe inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the National Museum of Man
• The Jacqui and Morris Shumiatcher Collection of Inuit Art, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina
• The Matriarchs: Jessie Oonark, Helen Kalvak, Pitseolak Ashoona, Snow Goose Associates
• The Moveable Feast, Arts and Learning Services Foundation
• The Murray and Marguerite Vaughan Inuit Print Collection, Beaverbrook Art Gallery
• The Oral Tradition, National Museum of Man
• The Prints Never Seen: Holman, 1977-1987, Albers Gallery of Inuit Art
• The Story Tellers of Holman Island: A retrospective exhibition of rare stonecut prints from 1968 - 1979, The Arctic Circle
• The Year of the Bear, The Arctic Circle
• Transformation, The Arctic Circle
• Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Visions of Rare Spirit: 20 Years of Holman Prints, Port Colborne Library
• Women Who Draw: 30 Years of Graphic Art from the Canadian Arctic, Feheley Fine Arts
• Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection of Inuit Art, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection of Inuit Art, Canadian Guild of Craft Quebec

Collections

• Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth
• Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage
• Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton
• Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa
• Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Clifford E. Lee Collection, University of Alberta, Edmonton
• Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City
• Department of Foreign Affairs, Ottawa
• Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton
• Glenbow Museum, Calgary
• Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University, Bristol
• Inuit Cultural Institute, Rankin Inlet
• Laurentian University Museum and Arts Centre, Sudbury
• McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
• Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon
• Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, Montreal
• Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Petro-Canada Collection, Calgary
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife
• Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
• University of Alberta, Edmonton
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg