Current Awards
2011 Artist Prize Chris Curreri
Chris Curreri works primarily with film and photography. He holds a BFA from the School of Image Arts, Ryerson U. and a BFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School
for the Arts at Bard College. Curreri’s work seeks to construct allegories in which a given entity becomes the subject to an act of “queering”, implying that things in the world are not defined by essential properties, but rather by the relationships that we establish with them. His photographs draw attention to the nature of aesthetic experience, suggesting that effort is required in altering conventional modes of perception. www.chriscurreri.com
Finalist Derek Liddington
Derek Liddington has a multi-disciplinary practice that touches on drawing, installation, photography and performance. He holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a MFA from the University of Western Ontario. He develops working class stories and narratives based on contemporary storytelling film, plays and art. www.derekliddington.com
Finalist Josh Thorpe
Josh Thorpe is a writer and musician. He has a BFA in inter-disciplinary art form from Simon Fraser U. with a focus on music. He has an MA in music composition from York U. and a Masters of Visual Studies from U.of T. Josh Thorpe’s practice is about extending the process of seeing, listening and providing the viewer with the opportunity to experience an enhanced way of thinking. www.joshthorpe.com
2011 Project Support Suzie Lake : Political Poetics AND Tasman Richardson : Necropolis
SUZY LAKE:POLITICAL POETICS organized by UTAC and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival; Curators Matt Brower and Carla Garnet. Suzy Lake has created powerful and nuanced photos, videos and performances since the 1970’s. This exhibition explores her current work within the context of key earlier productions. The exhibition shows how Lake, using her own body, has investigated the experience and expression of female image, identity and beauty in political, social and media environments over a span of 40 years. www.utac.utoronto.ca
TASMAN RICHARDSON. In NECROPOLIS, an independent artist’s project, Toronto-based video artist, electronic composer and graphic designer. Tasman Richardson has coalesced a fifteen year investigation into the nature and materiality of film and video. This new and immersive project explodes their two-dimensional restrictions into a dynamic and immersive experience for the viewer. NECROPOLIS will be housed and viewers will move through a custom made ‘skin’ measuring 100 x 50 feet. To be realized in the fall of 2011. www.tasmanrichardson.com
2011 Achievement Award Sarah Milroy
Sarah Milroy is the former editor of Canadian Art Magazine and until recently, the arts critic for the Globe and Mail. Richard Rhodes describes Sarah as a “font of continual new ideas”. She has embraced Toronto artists, never shying away from controversial work, championed Canadian Artists on the international scene and encouraged institutions such as the AGO to recognize and show emerging artists – a perfect fit for this award.
2011 TFVA Founders Award JUSTINA M. BARNICKE GALLERY
JUSTINA M. BARNICKE GALLERY for the ONLINE
CATALOGUE: TRAFFIC: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980.
This new award has been established to honour the TFVA Founders and is being given to
complete the funding for the production of the online data base. This catalogue will be a comprehensive account of Canadian Conceptual Art and has been designed to facilitate further research. It will offer an unprecedented access nationally and internationally to the most influential and cosmopolitan chapter of art in Canada and Toronto in the late 20th century. Contact www.jmbgallery.ca
2011 TFVA Trust Fund Women's Art Association
A grant was given to the Women's Art Association for a special purchase.