Robert Davidson is one of Canada’s most respected and important contemporary visual artists. He is a master carver of totem poles and masks, as well as a printmaker, painter, and jeweler. When he was growing up in Massett, Haida Gwaii, B.C., the art of his culture had virtually disappeared from view, but his father, Claude Davidson, and grandfather, Robert Davidson Sr., were respected carvers and his father insisted he carry on the family artistic tradition. When he was 22, in 1969, Davidson made and raised the first totem pole in Massett in nearly 90 years. 
Since then, he has produced an internationally acclaimed body of work, which is represented in collections including the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Davidson designed the red metal panels on the exterior of the Walter Soboleff Building. The design, based on one of his paintings, represents a supernatural being called the “Greatest Echo.”