Lens-based visual artists Hannah Doucet and Wynne Neilly from Toronto, and Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez, from Vancouver
are the winners of the 2023 Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award. (photo credits from left to right: Colin Medley; courtesy of the artist; and Khim Mata Hipol & David Aquino)
Hannah Doucet, Wynne Neilly and Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez have won the $10,000 New Generation Photography Award.
Their work will be displayed at Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto as part of the CONTACT photography festival, starting April 28, as well at the National Gallery of Canada in the fall.
Toronto-based Hannah Doucet's photographs, videos and sculptures explore fantasy, illness and the body. An artist, arts educator and cultural worker, Doucet has exhibited across Canada.
Wynne Neilly, based in Ontario, is a queer, trans-identified artist who balances fine art and commercial practices. Known for portraits that investigate queer and trans identity, he received attention for his 2021 cover photo of Eliot Page for TIME Magazine. His work has been included in international exhibitions.
Vancouver artist Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez uses archival photographs and found images to contrast the recent past with the present, exploring how images can be historical yet continuously present. Rodriguez has exhibited in Canada and internationally.
Andrea Kunard, the National Gallery's senior photography curator, chaired the contest's jury, and will organize both exhibitions.
"Photographs and videos explore and push against boundaries of the cultural and natural to imagine new possibilities of existence and relationships," she said. "As much as their images operate as critical statements on contemporary life, they also function to open dialogue and create community."
The jury also included Deanna Bowen, a past winner of the Scotiabank Photography Award; Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes, a winner last year of the New Generation Photography Award; and curator Bernard Lamarche, of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
The winners were chosen from a long list that also included Alex Antle, Georgia Dawkin, Annie France Noël, Tanea Hynes, Jackson Klie, Lucy Lu, Mariana Munoz Gomez and Gabriel Esteban Molina.
The award was launched in 2017 by the National Gallery of Canada, in partnership with Scotiabank, to support the careers of lens-based artists aged 35 and under.
For information, go here.
Source: National Gallery of Canada