Vancouver artist, Montreal curator win Hnatyshyn Awards

CBC News

Vancouver artist Ken Lum and Montreal gallery director and curator Louise Déry won the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Awards on Monday.

The awards, named for former Canadian governor general Ray Hnatyshyn, are given annually for outstanding achievement by a Canadian artist and for curatorial excellence in contemporary art.

The artist award comes with a cash prize of $25,000 and the curator's award has a cash prize of $15,000.

Lum, 51, is a painter, sculptor, photographer and conceptual artist.

The jury hailed the artist's use of familiar commercial designs in his works as a means to "blur the boundaries between traditional and popular esthetics in the interest of revealing the basis of our contemporary ethos."

The jury also noted Lum's teaching, which "challenged the precepts of the established art world" including a period at the University of British Columbia and guest teaching in France, Germany and China.

Lum strives to open the field to non-European artists. He was co-founder in 2000 of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art and has undertaken curatorial work in Africa, China and the United Arab Emirates.

"Taken together, Ken Lum's activities constitute an active, critical engagement with the public as to what art is, how it is used and who has access to it," the jury said.

He is known for works such as Four Boats Stranded: Red and Yellow, Black and White, which he installed on the roof of the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2001.

Déry is director of the art gallery at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has also worked at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

In 2007, Déry curated the David Altmejd exhibition in the Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, one of the highlights of the prestigious biannual event for contemporary art.

Altmejd's work was a gothic mix of birdmen and werewolves with flowers and stuffed animals that visitors lined up to view.

"Her exhibitions show an ability to engage with the contemporary world and her outstanding catalogues embody a desire to reflect on what it means to live in our world today," the jury said.