Show for Photography Award Winners
The Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada presents PhotoLab 4: New Generation Photography Award Exhibition from April 13 to Aug. 19. The exhibition features work by Elisa Julia Gilmour, of Toronto, Meryl McMaster, of Ottawa, and Deanna Pizzitelli, of Ottawa, winners of the inaugural New Generation Photography Award.
“This award allowed me to continue to focus my energies on creating art and enabled me to forward my practice as I work on a new body of work,” says McMaster.
Established in 2017, the New Generation Photography Award recognizes up-and-coming Canadian photo-based artists aged 30 and under. Created by the institute in collaboration with its founding partner, Scotiabank, it gives each winner $10,000 in prize money.
Ann Thomas, interim chief curator of the National Gallery of Canada and former senior curator of the institute notes that PhotoLab 4 is on view at the same time as The Extended Moment: Fifty Years of Collecting Photographs, giving visitors "a full spectrum of how generations of photographers have responded to the world around them."
The award exhibition features photographs, portraits and video/sound installations that explore gender identity, Indigenous representation, longing, loss, spontaneity, self-discovery and more. John Doig, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at Scotiabank, says the exhibition provides a “unique insight into how young Canadians perceive the world.”
Gilmour says she was honoured to be selected. “It is a rare opportunity to be given the platform to exhibit for a large public, pushing the work to lead a public life of its own.”
The winners were selected from a long list of 24 nominees announced in February. The jurors were Robert Bean, a visual arts professor at NSCAD University; Stan Douglas, an artist and winner of the 2013 Scotiabank Photography Award; and Elena Navarro, director of the Foto México festival.
The winners will participate in educational programming and give artist talks at the gallery on May 5. The work of all nominees on the long list will be featured at OCAD University’s Onsite Gallery as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival from May 12 to June 17.
“The experience of putting together two exhibitions with such major institutions is really helpful,” says Pizzitelli. “You learn a lot about your field, such as installation design, institutional pathways, challenges and problem-solving related to fabrication. Because of this, I’ve allowed myself to think more ambitiously. Winning this prize has allowed me to think about my work on a larger scale.”
Source: National Gallery of Canada
