Robert Houle, Quillwork I–VII (detail), 1988. Acrylic, pastel and porcupine quills on paper mounted to panel, 7 panels total, each panel 18 x 13 inches. Collection of the MacLaren Art Centre; gift of the John F. (Jack) Petch Family, 2014. Photo: André Beneteau.
Today, the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts (TFVA) announced the recipients of a total of $70,000 in annual awards.
Robert Houle has won the $15,000 Founders Achievement Award. Originating from Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba, Houle is an artist, curator, writer, educator and critic, as well as a residential school survivor. In 2015, he won a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.
Anique Jordan has won the $15,000 Artist Prize. Jordan is a Toronto-based artist, writer and curator working primarily in photography, sculpture and performance. Her previous honours include, in 2017, the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award.
Two Artist Prize finalists—Vanessa Dion Fletcher and Lisa Myers—receive $5,000 each. Dion Fletcher is a Lenape and Potawatomi Two-Spirit artist whose work is materially and socially driven, using porcupine quills, wampum belts and menstrual blood to understand decolonization, disability and the physical/cultural body. Myers, a member of the Beausoleil First Nation, is assistant professor of environmental and social change at York University and has an interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, drawing on her experiences as an educator, curator, writer, musician and chef.
The TFVA has also awarded project support funds of $20,000 to the Toronto Biennial of Art; $7,000 to the Don River Valley Art Program to support a public-installation reproduction of Sunrise by Rita Letendre; and $3,000 to YYZBOOKS to support its upcoming release on strategies of appropriation in Canadian art from 1977 to 1990.
TFVA is an independent, non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to the visual arts, and education programs for its 260 members.
