MCKEOUGH, SMITH AMONG 2009 GG WINNERS

Gordon Smith, Wet Night, oil on canvas, 1953, 27.5" X 33". Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, T. Eaton Co. Picture Purchase Fund.

Vancouver painter Gordon Smith and Calgary-based installation artist Rita McKeough are among this year’s nine honourees for one of Canada’s most prestigious visual arts prizes. The Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Awards were announced March 24 in Ottawa. Valued at $25,000 each, they’re awarded annually to recognize career achievement.

Originally from England, Gordon Smith won first prize in the National Gallery of Canada's biennial of Canadian art in 1955, launching him as one of Canada’s leading modernist painters. Now at 90, he continues to go into the studio every day, and has established a legacy of commitment to educating young people about art. A founding patron of the Artists for Kids Foundation, he taught at the Vancouver School of Art, and became Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Fine Arts in 1982. In 2007, he was awarded an Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts. Though distinctly modern in style, Smith’s painting is also significant to a mid-20th century B.C. influence, one that bridged a gap between earlier landscapes and later abstracts. At the same time, his work has changed continuously, creating an exciting and ever-evolving body of work.

Over 30 years, Rita McKeough has created work that is grounded in collaboration, performance, and a raucous engagement with the public. Often centring on themes of displacement, domestic abuse, the demolition of built environments, and ecological emergency, her installations and performances are complex, layered, and immersive. She has participated in solo and group shows at public galleries, museums, and artist-run centres across Canada, and has taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge. She’s currently on the faculty of the Alberta College of Art and Design.