The Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation has announced the winners of its 2021 VIVA Awards – Diyan Achjadi and Samuel Roy-Bois.
The $15,000 awards celebrate outstanding mid-career artists in British Columbia.
Achjadi is a printmaker and interdisciplinary artist who teaches at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. She has exhibited her print, installation and video art nationally and internationally.
Roy-Bois is a sculptor and installation artist who teaches at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus in Kelowna. He uses sound and site-specific installation to transform spaces and has exhibited across Canada and internationally.
The foundation also announced the winners of two other prizes it administers – one for curators and one for arts writers.
The $15,000 Alvin Balkind Curator's Prize went to Makiko Hara, an independent curator based in Vancouver. Hara is the former deputy director of Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and has organized many solo and group exhibitions.
The $5,000 Max Wyman Award for Critical Writing went to Vancouver-based art critic and writer Robin Laurence. She has been a contributing editor for Border Crossings and Canadian Art magazine and her essays have been published in more than 60 books and catalogues.
Source: Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation