Western Canadian artists win Governor General’s Awards
Several Western Canadian artists recently received Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. The awards, which carry a $25,000 prize, recognize outstanding career achievement.
Sandra Miegs, a Victoria painter who has exhibited widely across Canada, creates vivid and enigmatic paintings that combine dense narratives with comic elements. She has taught visual arts at the University of Victoria since 1993.
Collection of the artist. Photo: Ernest Mayer / Winnipeg Art Gallery.
"Imaginal Expression"
Reva Stone, "Imaginal Expression," 2004, custom 3D-software program and computer-visioning system, video camera and four video projectors.
Reva Stone, a Winnipeg artist, was one of the first Canadian women to embrace new media. Her work examines the impact of biotechnology and robotics on human existence. She has exhibited across Canada, and in the United States and Europe, and also writes about video and new-media work.
Robert Houle, an Anishnaabe Saulteaux artist and a member of Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba, has helped define contemporary indigenous identity. He has exhibited for more than 40 years, was the first curator of contemporary aboriginal art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design University for 20 years. He is based in Toronto.
Other winners are Micah Lexier, who studied at the University of Manitoba and is now based in Toronto; Paul McClure, a Toronto jewelry artist; and three Montrealers – curator Louise Déry, media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Rober Racine, a visual artist, writer and composer.