Simone Saunders, "It Matters," 2020, hand-tufted textile, 32" x 23" (courtesy of the artist)
Simone Saunders, a graduate of the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, is the national winner of the $15,000 BMO 1st Art! contest for post-secondary students.
Simone Saunders poses with her tufting gun. (courtesy of the artist)
Saunders wins for It Matters, a hand-tufted and punch-needled textile work that reflects on Black Lives Matter and the COVID-19 pandemic.
She was selected from among hundreds of graduating students at more than 100 art programs across the country.
Promising students are invited by their instructors to submit digital images of a recent work. Submissions are reviewed by a selection committee, which chooses a winner from each province and territory for a $7,500 prize, as well a national winner.
All winners are featured in an online show from Sept. 15 to Oct. 16 at the Virtual Art Museum at the University of Toronto.
Regional winners from Western Canada are Jasmine MacGregor from the Alberta University of the Arts; David Ezra Wang from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver; Gabriel Roberts from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg; and Rey Francis Dominic B. Tatad from the University of Regina.
Central Canadian winners are Tian Can from OCAD University in Toronto and Mikael Lepage from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
In the Atlantic provinces, the winners are Matthew Cripps from the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton; Kathleen Elliott from the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Cornerbrook; Alex Sutcliffe from NSCAD University in Halifax; and Duncan Brooks from Holland College in Charlottetown.
The Northern winners were Ellie Tungilik of the Nunavut Arctic College and Nicole Favron from the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City.
The selection committee was composed of Melanie Colosimo, director of the Anna Leonowens Gallery Systems at NSCAD University in Halifax; Francisco-Fernando Granados, an artist and educator; Marie-Eve Beaupré, curator at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; and cheyanne turions, the curator of SFU Galleries in Metro Vancouver.
Source: BMO 1st Art!