Luther Konadu, Figure as Index (Triptych). C-prints, 68.5×48 cm; 101.5×76 cm; 51×162.5 cm.
Winnipeg-based artist Luther Konadu has won the 2019 national BMO 1stArt! competition. Today, 12 regional winners were also announced.
This annual prize focuses on emerging artists, recognizing recent art grads from across Canada. Deans and instructors of 110 undergraduate student art programs were invited to select three graduating students from each of their studio specialties to submit a recent work. In all, 291 entries were received.
As winner, Konadu—a recent graduate of the University of Manitoba—will receive $15,000, while each of the 12 regional winners will receive $7,500. All of the winning works will be on view November 21 to December 16 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto.
Konadu won with “a series of C-prints formed from images of the artist’s close community of family and friends taken over a period of time,” says a release. “The triptych is part of an ongoing documentary project that works toward combating history’s negative depiction of the black body and creating a document of self on their own terms.”
The 12 regional winners are Preston Pavlis, MacEwan University (Alberta); Cheyenne Rain LeGrande, Emily Carr University of Art & Design (British Columbia); Marie-France Hollier, University of Manitoba (Manitoba); Clara Patterson, Mount Allison University (New Brunswick); Emily Hayes, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland (Newfoundland and Labrador); Séamus Gallagher, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University (Nova Scotia); Kaleigh Rose Tagak, Nunavut Arctic College (Nunavut); Christopher Dela Cruz, University of Toronto at Scarborough (Ontario); Hanna Matheson, Holland College (Prince Edward Island); Charline Dally, Université du Québec à Montréal (Quebec); Jimuel Belarmino, University of Regina (Saskatchewan); and Robyn McLeod, Yukon School of Visual Arts (Yukon).
The jurors this year included Marie-Eve Beaupré, curator, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; cheyanne turions, curator, SFU Galleries; Sarah Robayo Sheridan, curator, Art Museum at the University of Toronto; and Adriana Kuiper, artist and associate professor, Mount Allison University.
