Klatle-Bhi apprenticed with carver Simon Dick for two years, and has worked with Beau Dick, Wayne

Alfred and other artists. He was raised traditionally in a family with Squamish and Kwakwaka'wakw roots and prefers to use his ancestral name Klatle-Bhi (pronounced Cloth-Bay), given to him by his grandmother and meaning "head of a pod of killer whales."

Given Klatle-Bhi's background and name, the Killer Whale clearly holds special significance for him. As a portrait mask, Killer Whale Portrait emphasizes the human aspect of the image, and the artist concentrates on two-dimensional motifs, in particular the animal's dorsal fin, which is repeated with a variety of forms on forehead and cheeks in vivid polychrome and with subtle asymmetry.

References: For examples of masks by Klatle-Bhi see Robin K. Wright and Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Contemporary Northwest Coast art at the Burke Museum (Seattle: Burke Museum, 2013), p. 112.

Visit the artist's website at: klatle-bhi.com.

Lot 118