$100,000 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts awarded to Rebecca Belmore
September 17 2024 - 4:30PM
The Audain Prize for the Visual Arts was announced today in
Vancouver, recognizing distinguished Canadian artist Rebecca
Belmore with a $100,000 cash prize. Member of the Lac Seul First
Nation (Anishinaabe) and based between Vancouver and Toronto,
Rebecca Belmore is a multidisciplinary artist recognized
internationally for her performance art, photo-based work, and
site-specific sculptural installations.
“It is wonderful to recognize Rebecca Belmore as the recipient
of the 2024 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts,” said Michael Audain,
Chairman of the Audain Foundation. “As a province, we have some of
the leading contemporary artists in the world, and it is our
privilege to celebrate their work at home in British Columbia.
Rebecca Belmore’s work has had a pronounced influence in the visual
arts, and across the broader social landscape.”
“We who work in the fields of art believe in its greatness,”
said Rebecca Belmore. “Michael Audain’s ongoing generosity and
support for the arts across Canada and commitment to Indigenous art
is commendable. I thank him for this.”
Rooted in the political and social realities of Indigenous
communities, for decades Belmore’s art has made evocative
connections between bodies, land, and language. In 2023 for
example, Belmore was commissioned by The Polygon Gallery, in
collaboration with the Burrard Arts Foundation, to create a
large-format public artwork in North Vancouver. The commission,
Hacer Memoria, presented a series of blue and orange shirts made of
tarpaulin, referencing the resilience of residential school
survivors and offering an opportunity for the public to acknowledge
Indigenous people.
Recent solo exhibitions include Turbulent Water at Griffith
University in Brisbane, Australia (2021), Reservoir at the Audain
Art Museum in Whistler (2019), and Facing the Monumental at the Art
Gallery of Ontario in Toronto (2018). She has participated in
international group exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial
(2022), Istanbul Biennial (2019), documenta 14 (2017), and the
Venice Biennale (2005). She also participated in aabaakwad, the
foremost Indigenous-led gathering in the visual arts community,
which was presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022.
Selected by an independent panel of jurors, the annual Audain
Prize celebrates the outstanding achievements of British Columbia’s
artists and is administered by the Audain Art Museum. The award
represents the Audain Foundation’s ongoing commitment to raising
the profile of Canadian artists.
In addition, five $7,500 travel grants for B.C. students in
university-level visual arts programs were awarded at today’s
ceremony. Recipients include: Simon Fraser University’s Avideh
Saadatpajouh, the University of British Columbia Okanagan’s Roland
Samuel, the University of British Columbia’s Yuan Wen, the
University of Victoria’s Rainy Huang, and Emily Carr University of
Art + Design’s Sun S Manuel.
Since its establishment in 2004, the Audain Prize has honoured
some of B.C.’s most influential artists. Past recipients include
Dana Claxton, Ian Wallace, James Hart, Stan Douglas, Susan Point,
Carole Itter, Paul Wong, Michael Morris, Fred Herzog, Takao Tanabe,
Gathie Falk, Marian Penner Bancroft, Rodney Graham, Robert
Davidson, Liz Magor, Jeff Wall, Gordon Smith, Eric Metcalfe, E.J.
Hughes, and Ann Kipling.
About The Audain Foundation The Audain
Foundation was established in 1997 for the purpose of supporting
the visual arts in British Columbia with grants and endowments for
capital projects and exhibitions at major public art galleries and
educational institutions. More recently, the Foundation has
expanded its scope to include support for the Canadian artist, Jean
Paul Riopelle, as well as an interest in wildlife conservation
within BC. The Foundation has made over $180 million in grants to
date.
About the Audain Art Museum Established in
2016, the Audain Art Museum in Whistler was founded via a major
philanthropic gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa. The
Permanent Collection is focused on the art of British Columbia.
Highlights include hereditary Haida Chief James Hart’s The Dance
Screen, an exceptional collection of historical and contemporary
Indigenous art, a comprehensive selection of paintings by Emily
Carr and a brilliant range of works by Vancouver’s
Photo-conceptualists. The Museum hosts numerous special exhibitions
every year that feature artists and collections of national as well
as international significance.
Media Contact and Additional Image
AssetsJustine Nichol, Principal, Justine Nichol
CommunicationsEmail: justine@justinenichol.com Mobile:
604-789-4359
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/69bf300d-f488-42f1-a2d1-e73b8892ebc6