Dana Claxton
The $100,000 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts, which honours British Columbia's most prominent artists, has been awarded to Vancouver-based artist Dana Claxton.
A Hunkpapa Lakota photographer and filmmaker, Claxton investigates Indigenous beauty and the body, as well as socio-political and spiritual themes.
Claxton, a member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations in southwest Saskatchewan, has received many major honours, including a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts and the Scotiabank Photography Award.
A professor at the University of British Columbia, she says it is "a great honour" to be in the group of Indigenous artists who have received the award, including Susan Point, James Hart and Robert Davidson.
The Audain Prize, established in 2004 by the Audain Foundation, is one of the largest visual arts awards in Canada.
Michael Audain, chairman of the foundation, called Claxton "one of B.C.'s greatest artists.”
“Besides having an outstanding international reputation, Ms. Claxton has had a considerable influence on younger artists and her UBC art students," he said.
The Audain Foundation also announced five $7,500 travel grants for students in university-level visual arts programs in British Columbia.
They go to Victoria Verge and Tiffany Law at UBC, Nicole Mandryk at the University of Victoria, Caitlin Ffrench at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and Noor Abouchehade at Simon Fraser University.
Award winners were chosen by an independent jury of curators and artists.
Previous recipients of the Audain Prize, established in 2004, include Ann Kipling, E.J. Hughes, Eric Metcalfe, Gordon Smith, Jeff Wall, Liz Magor, Rodney Graham, Marian Penner Bancroft, Takao Tanabe, Gathie Falk, Fred Herzog, Michael Morris, Paul Wong, Carole Itter, Stan Douglas and Ian Wallace.
The Audain Foundation, set up in 1997 to support the visual arts, has awarded more than $160 million in grants and recently announced a gift of $100 million to the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Source: Audain Foundation