GOVERNER GENERAL'S AWARDS IN VISUAL AND MEDIA ARTS

Some amazing artists were selected for this year's Governer General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. We thought we'd share the news and feature a few of our favourites. 


Greg Payce, Al Barelli, 2001, earthenware with Terra Sigillata slips, 2.13 m high (left) and Blur, 2002, earthenware with terra sigillata slips, 45.7 cm high (Right).


Marcel Barbeau, Rétine ma jolie, New York, 1969, acrylic on canvas, 204 x 204 cm, collection of the Canada Council Art Bank.

Gordon Monahan, Speaker Swinging, 1982, performance.

Canada's best visual, media and fine craft artists win awards for life's work

Montreal, March 12, 2013 – The Canada Council for the Arts announced today the winners of the 2013 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts at the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal.

The winners are:
· Marcel Barbeau, Painter and sculptor, Montreal
· Rebecca Belmore, Visual artist, Winnipeg
· William D. MacGillivray, Filmmaker and director, Rose Bay, N.S.
· Gordon Monahan, Sound artist, composer and media artist, Meaford, Ont.
· Greg Payce, Artist-potter (Saidye Bronfman Award), Calgary
· Chantal Pontbriand, Exhibitions and events curator, art critic (Outstanding contribution), Montreal/Paris
· Colette Whiten, Sculpture installation artist, Toronto/Haliburton, Ont.
The chosen artists' work is as vast and diverse as the artists themselves and includes documentaries about life in the East coast; larger-than-life-size vases and First-Nations performance art in the West; public sculptures and experimental music composition in Ontario and Montreal-based curating and abstract painting.

For the first time, in partnership with the Independent Media Arts Alliance, the Canada Council commissioned artists to create short video profiles of each Award recipient that are featured on the Canada Council website along with biographies and images of the artists and their works.

"The 2013 laureates embody Canadian art at its best," said Robert Sirman, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts. "Not only are they expanding the boundaries of their art forms and addressing the big questions of our time, their work creates new shapes, sounds and perspectives that change the way we perceive the world around us."

In addition to a $25,000 prize from the Canada Council, each winner will receive a special issue medallion produced in partnership with the Royal Canadian Mint. The Canada Council Art Bank has in its collection many works by the 100+ artists who have won the Awards through the years, works that are available for rent or for loan.en français et en anglais.

Curious to learn more about these artists? 

The Canada Council site includes some great videos that feature each of these artists have a look.



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