Colleen Heslin, "Cloudhole," no date
dye on sewn canvas, 96" x 119"
Colleen Heslin has won this year's $10,000 Tanabe Prize for British Columbia painters, awarded to artists at an early stage of their careers.
Heslin, born in 1976 in Toronto, lives and works in Powell River, B.C. She earned a BFA in 2003 from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, and a MFA in 2014 from Concordia University in Montreal.
Heslin, who won the RBC Painting Competition in 2013, is known for innovative, textile-based work that considers the histories of art and craft, along with social aspects of gender and labour.
She has had recent solo exhibitions at the Monte Clark Gallery in Vancouver and the Esker Foundation in Calgary, and has participated in group exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Power Plant in Toronto, the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam, B.C., and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Artists are selected for the Tanabe Prize, administered by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, by contemporary art curators in British Columbia based on exceptional creativity and the promise of future achievements. Names of the selectors remain confidential. There is no application process for curators or artists.
Takao Tanabe was born in Prince Rupert and currently lives on Vancouver Island. His painting reflects his interest in abstraction and the landscape.
Source: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria