Installation view of Allison Katz's exhibition “Diary w/o Dates” at Oakville Galleries in Ontario in early 2018. Left to right: Wheezy, 2017, acrylic on raw canvas; Sweety, 2017, oil on linen; Heaty, 2017, oil on canvas; Wheaty, 2017, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist, The Approach, London and Gió Marconi, Milan. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.
Montreal-born, London-based artist Allison Katz is one of five artists shortlisted this week for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women.
Katz holds a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and an MFA from Columbia University in New York. Her practice includes painting, ceramics, graphics and writing, and in recent years she has had solo shows at Oakville Galleries, the MIT List Visual Arts Centre and Kunstverein Freiburg, among other institutions.
The Max Mara Art Prize for Women was established by the UK’s Whitechapel Gallery in collaboration with the Max Mara Fashion Group in 2005. Its aim is to promote emerging artists based in the UK and to inspire new artistic perspectives on 21st-century Italy.
The winning artist, who will be announced in early 2020, is awarded a bespoke six-month artist residency in locations around Italy. The resulting work is premiered at the Whitechapel Gallery and travels to the Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 2021.
The four other artists shortlisted for the prize this year are Katie Schwab, Tai Shani, Emma Talbot and Hanna Tuulikki.
The prize for 2019–21 is juried by Whitechapel director Iwona Blazwick, gallerist Florence Ingleby, artist Chantal Joffe, collector Fatima Maleki and art critic Hettie Judah.
This is not the first time a Canadian has been in the running for the Max Mara Art Prize. In 2014, Corin Sworn and Melanie Gilligan were both shortlisted for the prize, and Sworn eventually won it.
