New Generation Photography Award Recognizes Three Young Photographers
In partnership with the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada, Scotiabank has awarded the inaugural New Generation Photography Award. The prize, designed to support the careers of young artists and to help them reach their infinite potential, recognizes three young Canadians working in lens-based art: Elisa Julia Gilmour (Toronto), Meryl McMaster (Ottawa), and Deanna Pizzitelli (Ottawa).
Each winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000 and be featured in a group exhibition at the Canadian Photography Institute PhotoLab, located at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, from April 13, to August 19, 2018. A second exhibition will follow, at OCAD's Onsite Gallery, during the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto, from May 5 to June 17, 2018.
Award recipients will also be included in education programming and present artist talks on May 5, 2018 at 1 p.m. at the National Gallery of Canada. In 2015, Scotiabank became the Founding Partner of the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada with a $10 million gift, the largest in the Bank's history. The New Generation Photography Award is part of the gift's continued legacy.
OCAD University will be hosting a New Generation Photography Award Panel Talk with the three inaugural recipients. For event details, visit www.ocadu.ca/gallery/onsite.
2018 New Generation Photography Award Selection Process:
- To be eligible for the New Generation Photography Award, recipients must be exhibited artists working in lens-based art, aged 30 and under, and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
- The three recipients of the 2018 New Generation Photography Award were selected from the longlist by the award's jury, consisting of Canadian and international photography experts, artists, and leaders in the community.
- Luce Lebart, Director, Canadian Photography Institute, Chair of the Jury;
- Robert Bean, Professor, Visual Arts, NSCAD, Scotiabank Photography Award jury member (2014-2016);
- Stan Douglas, Artist and past Scotiabank Photography Award winner (2013); and,
- Elena Navarro, Director of FotoMexico with Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City.
- The award longlist was announced in February 2018. It included 24 young Canadian lens-based artists selected by the New Generation Photography Award Nomination Committee, a panel of 15 nominators who represent members of the arts community, including photography experts from arts universities and colleges across Canada.
2018 New Generation Photography Award Recipient Bios:
Elisa Julia Gilmour (photo by Mark Peckmezian)
Elisa Julia Gilmour is an emerging Canadian artist producing still and moving images. Her work engages with the notion of ephemerality through gestural storytelling. Her most recent project, Éperdument (Madly) (2016), which included a three-channel video installation and a publication of short stories, investigates how a Corsican mythological figure has enlivened a contemporary sense of identity. She has exhibited at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the Ryerson Image Centre and the Art Gallery of Mississauga.
Meryl McMaster (photo by Neeko Paluzzi)
Meryl McMaster is a Canadian-based artist and photography graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She was born and raised in Ottawa and is of Plains Cree/European decent. Her work explores questions of identity, representation, perception, myth, memory and the environment. Her distinct approach to photographic self-portraiture has been influenced by her experiences working in and exploring remote Canadian landscapes, as well as by contemplations over the complexities of her family heritage. Her solo exhibition Confluence (Curated by Heather Anderson and originating at Carleton University Art Gallery) is travelling to four more venues across Canada including the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery until March 15.
Deanna Pizzitelli (self-portrait)
Deanna Pizzitelli is a Canadian photo-based artist and educator. She completed her BFA in Photography at Ryerson University, and her MFA at the University of Arizona. With an emphasis on the emotional landscape, Pizzitelli uses analogue processes to explore themes of fantasy, desire, longing and loss. Her practice is motivated by the act of travel, the visual residue of her many intersections with landscape, wildlife and culture. Pizzitelli's work was recently exhibited at AIPAD: The Photography Show, New York, and Paris Photo, 2017. She has attended residencies in Canada, Iceland and Portugal. She is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.
Source: National Gallery of Canada
