Clockwise from left: 2015 Aimia Prize finalist Owen Kydd, Cherry, 2015; Alex Colville, To Prince Edward Island, 1965. Acrylic emulsion on Masonite, 61.9 x 92.5 cm. Purchased 1966 National Gallery of Canada (no. 14954) © A.C.Fine Art Inc.; a portion of the site for the Canadian Building Trades Monument Public Art Competition; OAC chair Rita Davies.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
Five finalist teams (each consisting of at least one artist and one architect) have been announced for the Canadian Building Trades Monument Public Art Competition. Metz & Chew (Vancouver); Studio West and EXP Services (Calgary); Noel Harding and DTAH (Toronto); S/N/L Group: Stacey Spiegel + NIP Paysage + Lightemotion (Montreal/Toronto); and John Greer and Brian MacKay-Lyons (Halifax) are all in the running for the Ottawa commission, which will give the winning team a minimum budget of $660,000 to create a monument in Major’s Hill Park. The winner will be announced in January 2016.
On Tuesday, the Ontario Arts Council announced that Rita Davies has been appointed as chair of the Ontario Arts Council. The Government of Ontario nominated Davies for the position in June. The former director of culture for Toronto, Davies has previously served as the executive director of the Toronto Art Council. She replaces Martha Durdin, the OAC’s longest-serving chair.
Voting for the 2015 Aimia | AGO Photography Prize officially opened this week at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. The gallery opened an exhibition of work by the four finalists, Dave Jordano, Annette Kelm, Owen Kydd and Hito Steyerl, on September 9, allowing visitors to vote within the exhibition. The online vote will follow shortly on September 15, 2015.
The recent Alex Colville retrospective proved a success for the National Gallery of Canada, attracting more than 110,000 visitors. This makes it the gallery’s third-most popular summer show in the last decade, coming in behind the Ottawa institution’s Van Gogh exhibition in 2012 and Renoir show in 2007.
