Governor General's Awards in Media and Visual Arts 2023 exhibition now open
Works and installations by GGArts laureates on view at the National Gallery of Canada from December 8, 2023, to March 3, 2024
OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 7, 2023 /CNW/ - The National Gallery of Canada (NGC), in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts, is exhibiting works and installations by the eight winners of the 2023 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts (GGArts) from December 8, 2023, to March 4, 2024. This is the fifteenth edition of the annual exhibition at the Gallery. The Awards, created in 1999 by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Governor General of Canada, celebrate the exceptional careers of artists from Canada's visual and media arts community.
"The Gallery is very proud to be celebrating 15 years of presenting the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts Exhibition and 15 years of partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts. For a second year, we have organized an exhibition, situated throughout the Gallery, which creates dialogues between the artists' practices and works from our contemporary and historical collections. It is a dynamic experience that inspires new perspectives and interpretations," said Jean-François Bélisle, Director and CEO, NGC. "The fact that these laureates are based all across Canada is something that can help us fulfill a goal near and dear to my heart: to ensure this institution is truly a national gallery."
"The Canada Council for the Arts is proud to partner with the National Gallery of Canada to honour the winners of the 2023 GGArts. Throughout their careers, these major artists have made extraordinary contributions to the fields of media arts, visual arts and contemporary crafts in Canada and beyond," said Michelle Chawla, Director and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts. "Their works awaken us to new perspectives, ideas, and values, and contribute to shaping our imagination and perception of the world."
Located across the NGC's Indigenous and Canadian Art, Contemporary Art, European Art galleries and public spaces:
Grace Nickel (Winnipeg, MB), a visual artist and educator and winner of the Saidye Bronfman Award, focuses on sculptural ceramics and installations. Commemorative Cameos, 2020?23, draw on the artist's "wholistic" understanding of collective grief related to loss of life while Pyres of Lifelines, 2019-22, reflects on the life cycle of trees, symbolizing the mortality of the living and the regenerative possibility of the dying in nature. Curated by Euijung McGillis, Assistant Curator, Photographs Collection, NGC.
David Garneau (Regina, SK), a Métis painter, curator, critical art writer and winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award, is interested in creative expressions of Indigenous contemporary ways of being. The 15 works on view combine the simplicity of still-life painting with the conceptual complexity of history painting, suggesting the tension between traditional Indigenous knowledge and contemporary survival. Curated by Wahsontiio Cross, Associate Curator, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization, NGC, and Michelle LaVallee, Director, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization, NGC.
Evergon (Montréal, QC), a gay politico, eroticist, artist, teacher, activist and cultural icon, is recognized as being at the avant-garde of experimentation in the field of photography and lens-based mediums, with a career spanning more than 50 years. Using the large-format Polaroid camera at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Caravaggio, 1984, and The Chowder Maker, 1986, are a theatrical interplay of textures and saturated colours. Curated by Andrea Kunard, exhibition Lead Curator and Senior Curator, Photographs Collection, NGC.
FASTWÜRMS (Mulmur, ON), the cultural project, trademark, and shared authorship of Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse formed in 1979, create poly-disciplinary works of art that mix performance and performative events into the context of immersive installations, collective making and social exchange projects. The mixed media installation #VOLCANO_LOV3R, 2023, conflates sexual energy and diversity with the world-building profusion and procreative power of the volcano. Curated by Andrea Kunard.
Germaine Koh (Vancouver, BC), an artist and organizer whose work ranges widely across media, adapting familiar objects, actions and spaces to create situations that look at the significance of communal experiences and the connections between people, technology and natural systems. HMH Boothy, 2017, resembles the telephone booths once common to urban landscapes and serves as a community platform for exchange. Bringing with it the cultural associations of these architectural forms as places of transformation and connection, Koh's work will serve as a public meeting point for a series of activities led by Gallery staff. Curated by Stephanie Burdzy, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art, NGC.
Shannon Walsh (Vancouver, BC), a filmmaker and interdisciplinary scholar who is known for emphasizing marginalized voices and stories on the front lines of vital contemporary issues. Covering a wide range of topics that defy single perspectives, five choral feature documentaries illustrate an impressive body of work that emphasizes the complex intricacies of the real world and the real people within it, while a selection of film stills and behind-the-scenes images from Walsh's six feature films highlight the multiple voices and collective process behind her filmmaking. Curated by Jasmine Inglis, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art and Photography.
Tim Whiten (Toronto, ON), an image maker and creator of cultural objects who has sought to navigate the territory of the human condition and its transformative potential in over 50 years of exhibiting work. Court, 2023, reflects on the role of glass in shaping our perceptions of contemporary life, through fragments of salvaged consumer items tinted with cobalt?an increasingly rare element and an essential component of the devices that power our digital world. Curated by Stephanie Burdzy.
Nettie Wild (Vancouver, BC) works collaboratively with her crews to explore documentary storytelling, bringing audiences behind the front lines and headlines of revolutions and social change around the world. GO FISH, 2023, in collaboration with cinematographer Scott Smith, takes viewers inside the annual herring migration, while Uninterrupted Eyes, 207, a segment from Uninterrupted, is a site-specific cinematic spectacle using projection mapping. Curated by Andrea Kunard.
For more information and a map of where each work and installation are featured within the Gallery, please see here.
About the National Gallery of Canada
Ankosé / Everything is Connected / Tout est relié
The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé?an Anishinaabemowin word that means "everything is connected"?reflects the Gallery's mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European art from the 14th to the 21st century. Founded in 1880, NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years. For more information, visit gallery.ca.
About the Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. The Council's grants, services, initiatives, prizes, and payments contribute to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and support its presence across Canada and abroad. The Council's investments foster greater engagement in the arts among Canadians and international audiences.
SOURCE National Gallery of Canada
News published on and distributed by:
