Nine artists – including Plains Cree curator, artist and writer Gerald McMaster – are the winners of the 2022 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
The winners each take home $25,000 each and a special-edition bronze medallion in recognition of their exceptional careers, the Canada Council for the Arts announced.
McMaster, a professor at Toronto's OCAD University, where he also heads Wapatah, a centre for Indigenous visual knowledge, picked up the outstanding contribution award.
His nominators – the Art Canada Institute in Toronto and the Remai Modern in Saskatoon – cited McMaster's pivotal role in increasing opportunities for Indigenous artists and changing intellectual and creative spaces for Indigenous art within institutions.
Visual arts awards were given to Pierre Bourgault, a prolific exponent of public art from Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Que.; Toronto's Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, who use actors, fabricated sets and props and found objects in their photography; Montreal's Monique Régimbald‐Zeiber, a feminist artist who addresses groups made invisible by history, language and dominant powers; and David Ruben Piqtoukun, a sculptor in Plainfield, Ont., who focuses on his Inuit heritage.
Media arts awards went to New York-based Moyra Frances Davey, and Jocelyn Robert, an artist in Quebec City.
The Saidye Bronfman Award for contemporary craft was won by Brigitte Clavette, a jeweller and metalsmith in Fredericton.
Video portraits featuring each of the artists have been created in their honour.
Source: Canada Council for the Arts