Inaugural Edmonton Visual Arts Prize Awarded

Inaugural Edmonton Visual Arts Prize awarded

This past summer, artist Arlene Wasylynchuk was awarded the first-ever Eldon & Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize, selected from 15 submissions from across the region. The new $10,000 prize is a partnership between the Eldon & Anne Foote Fund at the Edmonton Community Foundation, the Edmonton Arts Council, and the Visual Arts Alberta Association. Nominated by the Art Gallery of Alberta, Wasylynchuk was selected from a shortlist of artists that included Paul Freeman, David Janzen, Amy Loewan, and Alan Henderson.

Her winning piece, Saltus Illuminati, was an installation on elements from the natural environment. Known mainly as a landscape painter, Wasylynchuk created the work for the AGA in late 2011 by rolling paintings into new forms and lighting them from within, creating the illusion of a lit grove of trees in the Gallery’s RBC New Works Gallery. The Eldon & Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize will be awarded annually for five years.