Our Prize Winners in the News – Fall 2021

Michelle Pearson Clark Artist Prize Finalist 2019
Shellie Zhang Artist Prize Finalist 2021

Michelle Pearson Clarke is one of the artists participating in Crossings: Itineraries of Encounter, a six-part lightbox series on the University of Toronto Mississauga campus, opened on September 13, 2021. The program, Crossings: Itineraries of Encounter, is an exercise in collaborative composition while honouring the independent thinking that makes group work possible.  Across the six-part lightbox series Crossings: Itineraries of Encounter, each curator activates a Respondent Program that brings artists into dialogue with an image set.

In conversation with Morris Lum, Shellie Zhang responds to Meeting Places reflecting on the cultural significance of different Mississauga sites.

Click here for the conversation with Morris and Shellie both in written transcript and audio.


Jennifer Rose Sciarinno  Artist Prize 2013 (tied)

Jennifer is part of the MOCA group exhibit, Greater Toronto Art 2021 (GTA21). This first edition of this project brings together 21 of among the most exciting artists and art collectives working in relation to the Greater Toronto Area today. These artists address the pressing issues of our time and our city in an exhibition that spans all three floors of the Museum in a range of media including drawing, sculpture, performance, painting and video. Beyond the Museum walls, the exhibition features several public artworks, digital components, a variety of public programs and learning initiatives, and an accompanying publication.

This show runs from September 9, 2021 through January 9, 2022 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

Click here to learn more

Jennifer also participated in conversation with Allyson Vieira at the Daniel Faria Gallery (DFG Online). Often working with materials such as construction debris, plastic bags or scaffolding, Vieira considers how forms of communication and material histories are inherited from past civilizations and projected into the distant future, while Sciarrino’s stone carvings look to the microscopic universe of cells, spores, eggs and seeds to imagine potential futures where human and non-human actors appear entangled in curious relationships and exchanges.

You can watch the full conversation here, along with an online presentation of work by Sciarrino & Vieira.


Robert Houle Founders Achievement Award 2020

Robert Houle: Prelude to Red is a collection of Robert’s works at the Kinsman Robinson Gallery from November 20 to December 19, 2021.

Click here to learn more

Robert also has a retrospective show at the AGORed is Beautiful, which opens December 3 and runs through April 18, 2022. The exhibition will feature 100 installations, paintings and drawings and will reflect on topics such as nuclear fallout, residential schools, indigenous sovereignty and the birth of Canada.

Click here to learn more


Sandra Brewster Artist Prize 2018
Camille Turner Artist Prize Finalist 2018

Sandra and Camille are part of the launch of Thresholds, a digital project commissioned as part of A Map to the Door of No Return at 20: A Gathering organized by Dr Christina Sharpe and Dr Andrea DavisYork University. The project is inspired by Dionne Brand’s 2001 book, A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging.

Click here to spend time with each of the exhibits


Anique Jordan Artist Prize 2020

Anique has two works in ARTWORXTOI am land which is a three-part exhibition series that explores the role of the artist as a chronicler. This series and its public programs highlight and celebrate how individuals and communities have the power to create their own histories.

Click here to see her two works and directions to visit them


Lisa Myers Artist Prize Finalist 2020
Camille Turner Artist Prize Finalist 2018

Lisa Myers and Camille Turner are participating artists in How to Read a Vessel, at the Art Gallery of Burlington from September 10, 2021 through January 9, 2022. How to Read a Vessel is an experimental exhibition and communal site of learning that openly discusses the challenges and excitement of holding, caring for, and exhibiting this object-based, craft-forward permanent collection, while continuing to develop a vision that incorporates critical social practice at its core. How to Read a Vessel unpacks the matriarchal history of craft production and the AGB’s own institutional beginnings by bringing its ceramic vessels out of their vaults and into public space, alongside newly commissioned pieces and an array of international artworks.

Click here for more information


Abbas Akhavan Artist Prize Finalist 2012

Abbas was commissioned by the Chippendale Gallery in London for the installation, curtain call, variations on a folly. Paying close attention to the historical, societal and architectural structures of a given site, Akhavan uses a range of materials to examine spaces and species just outside the home, such as the garden, the backyard, and other domestic landscapes.

To view the installation click here


Tau Lewis  Artist Prize Finalist 2019

Tau Lewis features in the group exhibit No Humans Involved at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA from October 10,2021 to January 9, 2022.  No Humans Involved showcases the work of seven emerging artists and collectives whose practices disrupt and interrogate Western modes of humanism, highlight the limits of corporeal identity, and prioritize the nonhuman or antihuman as a point of departure.

Click here for more information


Erika DeFreitas Artist Prize Finalist 2016

On October 28 Christie Contemporary hosted a special evening reception, as part of Art TO which included work by Erika DeFreitas.


Click here to see details

Recent Articles

Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Announces the 2024 Artist Prize Award Winners

Posted Feb 29th, 2024 • 4 min read
Rita Daniel, President of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts, recently announced the recipients of the 2024 TFVA Artists Prize Winners. [...]

View Article

Our Prize Winners in the News! February 2024 Edition

Posted Feb 27th, 2024 • 3 min read
This edition in particular demonstrates the impact of our artists world-wide. If you are travelling, make note! Oreka James – Artist Prize Finalist [...]

View Article

Our Prize Winners in the News – January 2024 Edition

Posted Jan 19th, 2024 • 3 min read
TFVA prizewinners are very busy at the beginning of 2024 – read all about them! Sandra Brewster – Artist Prize Winner 2018 Sandra Brewster works [...]

View Article