Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts 2012 Awards Announced
TORONTO FRIENDS OF THE VISUAL ARTS are pleased to announce the recipients of our 2012 awards which will be presented at TRIBUTE NIGHT on MAY 8, 2012 at THE ARTS AND LETTERS CLUB.
TFVA has given over $392,000 (since 2001) to artists, projects, scholarships and in recognition of significant achievement in the visual arts.
ARTIST PRIZE WINNER: SEAN MARTINDALE www.seanmartindale.com
An interdisciplinary artist, his playful interventions activate public and semi-public spaces that encourage viewer engagement. Focusing on ecological and social issues, his work suggests alternate possibilities for existing spaces and infrastructure.
ARTIST PRIZE FINALIST: ABBAS AKHAVAN
Akhavan makes videos, installations and performances that are site-specific to the local architecture and the micro-politics of the region in which he is working. His work challenges the notion that there is a global art audience that speaks the same visual language.
ARTIST PRIZE FINALIST: ALEESA COHENE www.aleesacohene.com
Cohene dissects, catalogues and rearranges a vast repertoire of 80's era movies and defamiliarizes them to form new narratives. The result is a uniquely individual "composite" cinema that borrows freely from a ready-made vocabulary of shared emotional cues.
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: IAN CARR-HARRIS
Ian Carr-Harris is an internationally recognized sculpture/installation artist, writer, and educator. He has been on the faculty of OCAD University since 1964. Significant exhibitions include the Sydney Biennale, Documenta 8, Venice Biennale, National Gallery of Canada and the Power Plant. Carr-Harris was one of the founding directors of "A SPACE" 1970, the first artist run centre in Toronto as well as the Power Plant. He has served on the board of the AGO, The Harbourfront Corporation, CCCA and PAPAC. Ian Carr-Harris was awarded the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2007. His practice is concerned with the themes of classification, the definition of knowledge and its elusiveness. He is represented by the Susan Hobbs Gallery.
PROJECT SUPPORT: WORKMAN ARTS www.workmanarts.com
Mad Couture Catwalk brings to life the long association of art and mental illness through artists' creations in the language of couture. The TFVA has supported the Catwalk live show catalogue kicking off Workman Arts' 25th anniversary.
PROJECT SUPPORT: 60 PAINTERS www.60painters.com
The 60 Painters Collective in partnership with Lakeshore Arts and Humber College present a major exhibition and symposium at the Humber College School of Arts and Media Studio on May 18- June 9, 2012. The exhibition celebrates the vital role of painting in the visual arts today and will include educational tours for secondary and post-secondary students and a full-colour catalogue.
PROJECT SUPPORT: KOFFLER GALLERY www.kofflerarts.org
The unusual off-site "special" of the Koffler Art Gallery invites six Canadian artists to be inspired by the show bills, iconic signage and archives of Honest Ed's Toronto landmark discount store. New works by the artists explore the visual vocabulary of commercial and urban signage infiltrating the building inside and out. The exhibition runs June 2012 to November 2012.
FOUNDERS AWARD: MERCER UNION www.mercerunion.org
Mercer Union is an artist run centre established in 1979. Today its mandate is to be a "Centre for Contemporary Art" programmed for cutting-edge artists around the globe. The key to this ambition is to develop their 10 year old website into a more interactive, graphic, and image-laden support. This award is being given to complete the funding for this online initiative.
TORONTO FRIENDS OF THE VISUAL ARTS TRUST FUND: V TAPE
This award is given to help V Tape preserve their archives.
contact: info@tfva.ca
