Saskatchewan Cree artist Ruth Cuthand, winner of a 2013 Lieutenant Governor's Arts Award / photo Thirza Cuthand
Ruth Cuthand and Andrew Salgado were among the honourees at the 2013 Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Awards in Regina this week.
Presented by the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the awards celebrate the contributions and achievements of individuals, groups, and organizations in all arts disciplines.
Cuthand, a Prince Albert–born artist of Plains Cree and Scots descent, won the Saskatchewan Artist Award for works in painting, beading, drawing and photography that explore topics including colonialism, stereotyping, residential school abuse and institutionalized racism. Her work Trading, for example, uses delicate beadwork to depict the microscopic viruses carried by European traders into vulnerable First Nations communities.
Cuthand’s work was part of “Oh, Canada” at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and her travelling retrospective “Back Talk (works 1983–2009)” has exhibited at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery in Halifax and the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.
The Emerging Artist Award went to Salgado, who was born and raised in Regina and has lived in London, UK, since 2008. His bold, predominantly large-scale paintings explore masculinity, sexuality and identity.
Salgado was recently commissioned by British retailer Harvey Nichols to create a series of works for its Sloane Street windows in London. He has upcoming 2014 exhibitions in Cape Town, New York and Copenhagen as well as an Art Gallery of Regina solo exhibit, “The Acquaintance,” that opens on October 9.
Both winners received a limited-edition bronze sculpture by Saskatchewan artist Joe Fafard and a $5,000 cash prize. The jurors were writer, performer and recording artist Brenda Baker; artist, art appraiser, and gallery owner Darrell Bell; arts education professor Ann Kipling Brown; and author Louise Halfe.
Other Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Awards recipients for this year include author Guy Vanderhaeghe and the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative.
