Happy New Year! Our prize winners are celebrating and celebrated, with awards and exhibitions in and around Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and internationally.
Award Winners
Sameer Farooq, Artist Prize 2022
Art Canada Institute has named Sameer Farooq’s exhibition, The Fairest Order in the World, at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, as a Best in Show in the category Winter Canadian Art Exhibitions. To read the newsletter, click here
Sameer Farooq has been selected for the 2025 Arts/Industry residency program at the John Michael Kohler Arts Institute. For more information about this program, click here
Lotus Kang, Artist Prize 2015
Lotus Kang was included in the New York Times’ list of breakout stars of 2024. Nominated for her sculpture and site-responsive artwork, Kang was included as one of “10 artists who shook up their scenes and resonated with fans this year.” For more information, click here
Maria Hupfield, Artist Prize 2023
Maria Hupfield and her partner Jason Lujan have won the 2024 Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries’ Innovation in a Collection-Based Exhibition award for Woodland Boogie Woogie 6. For a full list of winners and nominees, click here
Current Viewing
Jay Wilson, Artist Prize 2001
Jay Wilson has co-curated Inside. Outside. Of. with his curatorial partner Shannon Anderson. It showcases the work of Ella Gonzales, David Merritt, Émilie Régnier, and Shanie Tamassini. The exhibition opens at Art Gallery of Mississauga Saturday, January 25 and continues until April 13, 2025. It then travels to the Foreman Art Gallery in Sherbrooke QC, October 17 to December 13, 2025. For more information, click here
Erika DeFreitas, Artist Prize 2016
A new show at the Esker Foundation gallery in Calgary includes Erika DeFreitas‘ work, and that break is the one that shows (to shift, a curve, to quiver). It opens on January 24 and continues until April 27. For more information, click here
Sandra Brewster, Artist Prize 2018
Works by Sandra Brewster are included in the show Fortitude/Fragile at the Onsite Gallery at OCADU from January 22 to May 17. For more information, click here
Jen Aitken, Artist Prize 2021
Aitken’s 15 foot tall sculpture, Presque vu, 2023, commissioned by the National Bank of Canada in Montreal, is now on view in their offices. For more information on Jen Aitken, click here
Niall McClelland, Artist Prize 2015
Niall McClelland’s solo exhibition, Cypher, is currently running at Galerie Nicolas Robert (in collaboration with Clint Roenisch Gallery) in Montreal, until February 22. For more information, click here
Nadia Belerique, Artist Prize 2015
New work by Nadia Belerique, Gestures of Abundance, will be included in the biennial Walk and Talk Festival in Sao Miguel, Azores. The festival runs from Sept 25 to Nov 30, 2025. For more information on the festival, click here
Shaheer Zazai, Artist Prize 2024
Zazai’s solo exhibition, Another Word for Translation. Another Thread for Thought, will be at Latcham Art Centre, Stouffville, Ontario until Saturday February 22. For more information, click here
Zazai‘s work Interlaced: Animation & Textiles is on display at Govett-Brewster Gallery, Plymouth, New Zealand until April 27, 2025. For more information, click here.
Performance
Isabel Okoro, Artist Prize 2024
As the inaugural filmmaker in residence at the University of Toronto, Isabel Okoro hosted a public lecture called On World-Building: A Conceptual Framework of Life. You can view this lecture here
Alvin Luong, Artist Prize 2023
Luong presented some of his research on the Vietnam War, in a performance he calls a parafictional speech, at the University of Pennsylvania.
Recently Closed
Evergreen Brick Works, Project Support 2024
Dastgah, the visual and auditory sculpture at Evergreen Brick Works, has had over 100,000 visitors, including 5,000 youth from schools and camps. The Brick Works is currently in talks to move it to another public space.
Marvin Luvuaul Antonio, Artist Prize 2017
Antonio’s exhibition at the Cooper Cole Gallery, Make Me Wanna Holler, closed on January 18. For more information, click here
Tau Lewis, Artist Prize 2019
Lewis’s exhibition, Tau Lewis: Spirit Level, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston closed on January 20. For more information, click here
Shaheer Zazai, Artist Prize 2024
Work by Zazai was included in the Patel Brown Toronto Salon | Group Exhibition that closed December 21, 2024.
