Our Prizewinners in the News – January 2025 Edition

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.

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