Clara Couzino, "Objectifier l’écriture," 2018
painted objects, shelves, string, 90" × 85" × 3"
Clara Couzino, a student at Concordia University in Montreal, has won the national prize of $15,000 in this year's BMO 1st Art competition, which recognizes artistic excellence among Canadian post-secondary students.
Her prize-winning work is a composition of painted objects, shelves and string built to resemble a sheet of lined paper. It creates a visual and textual language that shifts between two and three dimensions depending on the viewer’s perception.
As well, 12 regional winners each picked up $7,500 and an invitation to Toronto to attend the opening of the competition's exhibition, on view at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto from Nov. 15 to Dec. 8.
The contest, created in 2003, has recognized a total of 211 emerging artists, says Dawn Cain, curator of BMO's corporate art collection.
“We are thrilled to announce another immensely talented group of winning artists this year,” says Cain.
The Western Canadian finalists are Max Keene (University of Alberta); Phoebe Huang (Simon Fraser University); Jimmie Kilpatrick (Brandon University); and Amber Agarand (University of Regina).
The Northern winners are Greg Morgan (Nunavut Arctic College) and Christopher Dufour (Yukon School of Visual Arts).
Other finalists are Sylvan Hamburger (Mount Allison University); Emma Burry (Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland); Rodney MacMullin (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University); Josi Smit, (OCAD University); Paul Atwood, (Holland College, Charlottetown); and Sarah Madgin (Université du Québec à Montréal).
Post-secondary arts programs across Canada are invited to invite to submit a recent work from select students. This year, 267 works were considered.
The jury is composed of Hugues Charbonneau, the director of Galerie Hugues Charbonneau in Montreal; Adriana Kuiper, an artist and associate professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B.; Naomi Potter, director/curator of the Esker Foundation in Calgary; and Sarah Robayo Sheridan, the curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.
Winning pieces can be viewed at https://1stArt.bmo.com.
Source: BMO