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The Sobey Award Touring Exhibition 2004

Scotiabank presents the Sobey Award Touring Exhibition 2004

The Gallery is extremely pleased to welcome works from Canada’s top emerging artists and finalists of the Sobey Art Foundation’s Sobey Art Award.

A biennual competition first presented in 2002 to Vancouver’s Brian Jungen, it is Canada’s pre-eminent award for a young Canadian artist and comes with an unprecedented prize of $50,000. Qualifying artists must be 39 years old or younger and have established a professional record by recently showing their work in a public or commercial art gallery in Canada.

The Sobey Art Foundation calls upon a panel of five curatorial advisors, consisting of a representative from a major gallery in the regions of the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies and North, and the West. This year, our own Lisa Baldissera, Curator of Contemporary Art, was an advisor along with Ray Cronin of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; St?phane Aquin, Mus?e des Beaux-arts de Montr?al; David Liss, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art; and Catherine Crowston, Edmonton Art Gallery.

These curatorial advisors developed a shortlist of five artists working in their regions and met in Halifax to narrow the national longlist of 25 artists to a shortlist of five with one representative from each region.

The Sobey Art Award Touring Exhibition 2004 features works from these finalists including kinetic installations by Jean-Pierre Gauthier (Quebec); video installation by Althea Thauberger (West); drawings and paintings by Marcel Dzama (Prairies and North); conceptual and object based projects by Germaine Koh (Ontario) including Knitwork, an ongoing project begun in 1992; and works of new sculptural realism by Greg Forrest (Atlantic).
 
In October 2004, Jean-Pierre Gauthier was chosen the winner of the competition. This was his second time on the short list. Gauthier creates kinetic installations he describes as “mecanico-hygienic.” In his work, everyday objects are transformed, inhabiting installations that present sound, movement and physical objects in haunting, humorous and challenging combinations. Equally concerned with sound as with material, he bridges the visual arts and experimental music worlds. A graduate of the Universit? du Qu?bec with a MFA, Gauthier?s work has been presented in solo exhibitions at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; and Mus?e des beaux-arts, Montr?al.

“While this award shines a spotlight on creative minds across this country, I hope it will also stimulate interest, discussion and debate regarding Canadian contemporary art,” said Donald Sobey, of the Sobey Art Foundation. “Since the inaugural award in 2002, enthusiasm about the award has grown and we want to build on that momentum by making Canadian contemporary art more accessible.”

This tour is organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.