Five Western Canadian artists are among the eight winners of this year’s $25,000 Governor General’s Awards in Visible and Media Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts introduced Tuesday.
Inventive accomplishment awards go to Germaine Koh, of Vancouver, as properly as two Vancouver filmmakers, Nettie Wild and Shannon Walsh. Regina artist David Garneau wins the superb accomplishment award, even though Winnipeg’s Grace Nickel picks up the Saidye Bronfman Award, specified annually to a craft artist.
The other creative accomplishment awards go to Toronto artist Tim Whiten, Montreal artist Evergon and FASTWÜRMS, an artist collective based in Mulmur, a rural township north of Toronto.
“This year’s award-winning artists have motivated our sights, perceptions and practical experience of what Canada is and, a lot more importantly, what it can grow to be, with a escalating emphasis on sharing creative creation in all its diversity and boldness,” claimed Simon Brault, the council’s director.
The winners, picked by peer assessment committees, also receive a bronze medallion and are the subjects of short online video portraits commissioned by the Canada Council. As well, the Nationwide Gallery of Canada will mount an exhibition by the winners. No date for the exhibition has been introduced.
The Saidye Bronfman Award was founded by the Bronfman family members in 1977, and is considered the most prestigious award in Canadian fantastic crafts. Each calendar year, the Canadian Museum of Record acquires both a solitary work or a series of works by the winner.
The jury for the Saidye Bronfman Award was composed of Maegen Black, affiliate dean of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton Laurent Craste, a Quebec ceramics artist and Vancouver glass artist Naoko Takenouchi.
The jury for the other awards was composed of New Brunswick artist Rémi Belliveau Karen Chapman, a filmmaker from Metro Toronto Edmonton artist Brenda Draney Montreal artist Aude Moreau and Reid Shier, executive director of Vancouver’s Polygon Gallery.
The excellent contribution award is supplied to artists who have made exceptional contributions to visible arts, media arts or high-quality crafts in a volunteer or expert capacity.
Creative accomplishment awards are presented to artists in recognition of their bodies of perform. The awards honour their contributions to present-day visual or media arts.
Source: Canada Council for the Arts