Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts

His Excellency presented the 2011 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts during a ceremony at Rideau Hall, on March 23, 2011.

Kye-Yeon Son is this year’s winner of the Saidye Bronfman Award, which recognizes excellence in the fine crafts. Ms. Son creates simple forms with intricate surfaces and precious metals. Movement through direction, space, volume and texture is mastered in Ms. Son’s work, whether the object is sculptural, such as her wire vessels, or functional, such as her silver teapots. She has exhibited her works in numerous solo and group exhibitions in public and commercial galleries across Canada, the United States, South Korea, Germany, Japan and England. The Saidye Bronfman Award is funded by the revenue of an endowment donated to the Canada Council of the Arts by the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation. Phyllis Lambert, Founding Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Honorary Chair of the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, assisted in the presentation of this award.

Whether she’s writing criticism, reviewing, blogging or tweeting, Nancy Tousley is either creating a buzz in Canada’s art scene or is plugged in to one. Known primarily for her indispensable work for Canadian Art magazine and the Calgary Herald, where she was an art critic for 30 years, Ms. Tousley is able to make art accessible and relevant. Described as engaged, meticulous and fair, she respects the artists she interviews and the readers who follow her work. Of note are her contributions to art publications, her catalogue essays, her work as an independent curator and the numerous awards she has received for outstanding achievement in arts journalism from the Canadian Museums Association, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries and the Province of Alberta, to name a few. Ms. Tousley is this year’s winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award in the visual and/or media arts in a volunteer or professional capacity.

Shirley Wiitasalo’s highly-celebrated talent as a contemporary painter has received critical and public attention throughout her career. Undaunted by the medium’s rich history, Ms. Wiitasalo creates work that is unpredictable, challenging and new. From her evocative imagery to her recent explorations that employ a more reductive vocabulary, Ms. Wiitasalo is interested in unravelling the mystery of painting itself. She has participated in solo exhibitions at The Power Plant, Toronto (2000); the Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (1993); and the Art Gallery of Ontario (1987); as well as in several important group exhibitions across Canada, including at the National Gallery of Canada (1989), and internationally at the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany (1994); the Fodor Museum, Amsterdam (1984); 49th Parallel, New York (1982); and the National Museum of Art, Tokyo (1981). Her work is in many major national public collections, such as the National Gallery of Canada.

Barbara Sternberg is recognized as one of Canada’s most distinctive and innovative media artists with a stellar 35 year production and exhibition history. Ms. Sternberg is a trailblazer with a rare ability to see and show the human condition; the intersection of film and life is the area of her work. She often uses the painstaking process of optical printing to transfer Super 8 images to 16mm to produce her works. Her groundbreaking films have been screened widely across Canada and internationally, including at The Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris). Her work is in many major collections, such as the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada. Ms. Sternberg has worked in other media, including performance and installation, and since 2000, has also made a number of videos. Also of note is her role as co-founder of Struts Gallery, an artist-run centre in Sackville, New Brunswick and founding member of Pleasure Dome, a film artist exhibition group in Toronto.

David Rimmer’s magical experimental films demonstrate his mastery of the medium. As one of the finest technicians of Canada’s avant-garde film movement, Mr. Rimmer began his practice in Vancouver’s artist-run Intermedia Co-op in the late 1960s. By patiently scratching, looping, colouring, rear projecting and re-filming surplus film provided by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada, Mr. Rimmer produced his signature works, such as Surfacing on the Thames (1970) and Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper (1970). With over 40 films in his portfolio, from animation to documentary, Mr. Rimmer remains one of the most respected film artists in Canada. His work has been screened in many prestigious venues—such as the Canadian Cultural Centre (Paris), Canada House (London), and the European Media Arts Festival (Osnnabruck, Germany)—and is in many national and international collections, including The Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the British Film Institute and Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute.

In 1969, Michael Morris co-founded Image Bank, a national vehicle for facilitating the exchange of ideas, images and information between artists by mail. Image Bank, and the mail-art exhibitions and publications that emerged from it, circulated internationally and put Vancouver on the map as an artistic hub. Recognized as an accomplished curator, Mr. Morris is also the co-founder of Western Front Society, Vancouver’s first artist-run centre, and of the Morris/Trasov Archive at the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia. Over the past 45 years, Mr. Morris has produced an exceptional body of work in film, photography, video, installation and performance, and is known primarily for his intelligent, dazzling and ambitious abstract paintings and prints. His work is held in many important collections, including at the National Gallery of Canada, The Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Ludwig Museum (Cologne, Germany) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, England).

Robert Fones began his 40 year career in London, Ontario, where he was a founding member of Forest City Gallery. Mr. Fones often combines elements from popular culture and design, such as packaging, pictograms and letterforms, with investigations into geological, cultural and industrial history. He has explored these ideas through artist books, published by Coach House Press and Art Metropole, sculptural letterforms with applied photographic imagery, and paintings that hover between geometric abstraction and trompe l’oeil. Mr. Fones has exhibited in Canada, the United States and Germany, including a solo show at the Power Plant (1989) and a solo travelling exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario (1991-92).

Geneviève Cadieux’s art explores the metamorphosis of photographic and cinematic images through the recording and production process. Whether shown in a museum, private or public space, the presentation of her artwork inspires a theatrical, cinematic scene designed to affect its viewers by drawing us in. Ms. Cadieux has participated in numerous international exhibitions and at major art biennales—in Montréal, São Paolo, Sydney and Venice—where she represented Canada. Her work has been in several individual exhibitions, including at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (1993), the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver (1999), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton (2000).

For the first time this year, the laureates received a bronze medallion, designed by the Canadian Heraldic Authority at the Chancellery of Honours and produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. The medallion was unveilled during the ceremony by the Governor General and Joseph L. Rotman, Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.

The Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts are Canada’s foremost awards for excellence in these artistic disciplines. The prizes are awarded annually to visual and media artists for distinguished career achievement in visual arts, architecture, independent film and video, or audio and new media. The awards include the Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in the fine crafts. One prize is also awarded annually for outstanding contributions to the visual and/or media arts in a volunteer or professional capacity.