Images clockwise from left: Mélanie Joly, minister of Canadian heritage; Thaddeus Holownia with a second-year Mount Allison University photo class. Photo: Andrew Tolson; Colin Rosati at the inaugural Emerging Digital Artist Awards.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
Mélanie Joly, appointed minister of Canadian heritage on Wednesday, stated that Liberal campaign promises of increased funding would be upheld. Joly is a lawyer and communications professional. She has been involved with a number of arts causes and organizations, including the boards of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and Business for the Arts.
New Brunswick artist Thaddeus Holownia has been awarded a Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in the Arts. The award includes a $20,000 prize. Earlier this year, Holownia was also a recipient of the Order of New Brunswick, which recognizes “a high level of individual excellence and achievement.”
A number of artists were recognized with Vancouver Mayor’s Art Awards, which give honourees a cash prize and allow them to select an emerging artist for recognition. Liz Magor was awarded the prize for public art and she recognized emerging artist Devon Knowles; Cindy Mochizuki was awarded the prize for film and new media and selected emerging filmmaker Amanda Strong; Brian Jungen won the award for visual arts and selected Ron Tran.
Colin Rosati has taken first place at the inaugural Emerging Digital Artist Awards, which are sponsored by Equitable Bank. Rosati was awarded $5,000, and his winning piece, Autocidal After-Image, will join Equitable Bank’s art collection. Santiago Tavera, Yi Xin Tong, Brianna Lowe and Zinnia Naqvi were finalists in the awards, and each will receive a prize of $1,000.
The Vancouver Art Gallery has established an Asian Art Council to advise their Institute of Asian Art, an initiative founded in 2014 that focuses on developing “public appreciation of art from Asia through exhibitions, public programs and collection acquisition.” The gallery has hired Zheng Shengtian as adjunct director of the institute and Diana Freundl as associate curator of Asian art, a new position at the gallery.
