Three artists with ties to Vancouver – Carol Sawyer, Sara Cwynar and Vikky Alexander – are among the 11 Canadian artists on the long list for the 2021 Scotiabank Photography Award. Other artists are on the list are Jeff Bierk, Annie MacDonnell and Greg Staats, all based in Toronto; Deanna Bowen and Dawit L. Petros, both in Montreal; Will Gill and Ned Pratt, both in St. John's, Nfld.; and Ottawa's Jeff Thomas. The award recognizes established mid-to-late career artists. The winner, chosen by a four-member jury, will receive a solo exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre during the 2022 Contact Photography Festival, as well as a $50,000 cash prize and a book deal with German publisher Steidl. The short list will be announced March 31.
The Art Canada Institute has published an online book about Toronto-based artist Suzy Lake. The book, Suzy Lake: Life & Work, written by UBC art historian Erin Silver, explores how Lake used her camera to push the boundaries of photography. Lake, born in 1947, used herself as a model, but the works are not self-portraits. "I'm not some heroine recounting my life," says Lake, "The reason I use myself as a model is because I'm always on hand, I'm always around." Born and raised in Detroit, she came to Canada in 1968, and went on to investigate themes of identity, gender and power.
Brian Brennan, a longtime Calgary Herald reporter and occasional writer for Galleries West magazine, has died at 77. Born in Dublin, Brennan came to Canada in 1966, making a name for himself as a musician and raconteur. He helped lead a drawn-out strike against the Herald two decades ago as head of the union bargaining committee. He wrote a memoir, Leaving Dublin, Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada, as well as other books of biography and social history. He is survived by his wife, Zelda, and daughter, Nico. For a time at the Herald, he wrote obituaries of ordinary people. No surprise then, that he wrote his own obit, a touching farewell that can be found here.
The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art has announced the establishment of a mentorship fund honouring Scott Hean. It is aimed at emerging Indigenous artists through the gallery’s paid internships, guest curator program and other mentorship opportunities. The fund was established by Hean's family to honour his legacy, which included serving as board chair for the Bill Reid Foundation from 2007 to 2014. "Scott was an advocate of the arts and always supported the gallery’s initiatives to mentor a new generation of Indigenous youth interested in the arts," the gallery says. For more info, go here,
An Ontario gallery has found a profitable sideline in selling art destined to become backdrops for Zoom conferences, CBC News reports. "People are finally looking at what's behind them as they stare at their screen," said Andrea Rinaldo, co-owner of the Butter Art Gallery in Collingwood, Ont. "And they don't like what they see." Sales are booming with customers spending as little as $45 for smaller pieces or well into five digits for larger works, the gallery says.
The Pitquhirnikkut Ilihautiniq / Kitikmeot Heritage Society, a nonprofit Inuit heritage organization in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The society, which organizes projects to support the revival of Inuit culture, language and history, focuses on the needs of Inuinnait – a distinct group of Inuit living in the Central Canadian Arctic. The Inuinnaqtun language, the foundation of Inuinnait culture, has less than 600 fluent speakers remaining and may go extinct within two generations, which will mean a loss of an archive of history, knowledge and traditions. To mark the anniversary, the society has started a campaign to raise $250,000 for Inuinnaqtun renewal over the coming year.
Vancouver's Emily Carr University of Art and Design is hiring five full-time tenure or tenure track scholars from Indigenous and racialized communities. "We are working to dismantle a legacy of white supremacy and institutional racism," the university says. "It’s critical that we empower scholars from all backgrounds to succeed as educators and researchers, to give our students the education they deserve and to shape the future of the university." The positions are in communication design, film and screen arts, interaction design, photography and the library. For information, go here.
