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Celebrating visual art of the human form / Célébrer l’art visuel de la forme humaine

Awards

Figureworks 2019

On November 20, 2019 we celebrated 35 artist finalists.

Photo: Nicole Lewis

Andrew Ackerman, Durrah Alsaif, Nima Arabi, Kendall Ayoub-Nichols, Steven Bradbury, Robert Creighton, Christine De Vuono, Benjamin Entner, Allison Fagan, Gary Franks, Ao Gao, Brandon Giessmann, Gianni Giuliano, Michael Goodson, Abigail Gossage, Nicci Haynes, John Healey, Horst Herget, Niloo Inalouei, Lindsay Irene, Jason John, Louise Kermode, Patricia La Prairie, Jaymie Lathem, Ava Margueritte, Celeste Marten, Angelina McCormick, Addie Kae Mingilton, Hanna Newman, Rosemarie Peloquin, Tamar Segev, Bonnie Sheckter, Aaron Sidorenko, Mike Steinhauer, and Scott Waters.

On November 20, 2019 we celebrated 35 artist finalists selected for Figureworks 2019. These artists were selected from 530 entries from 346 artists located across Canada and internationally. Works included photographs, sculptures, paintings, drawings, videos and fibre art.

The Jury

The Figureworks prize is evaluated by a jury of peer professional artists, curators and arts administrators representing a broad range of media and forms of art.

Michael Davidge

Michael Davidge is an artist, writer, and independent curator. He holds an M.A. in English Literature from Concordia University and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Western University. He is a proponent of artist-run culture and was the Artistic Director of Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre in Kingston before moving to Ottawa in 2012. Recent projects include Cultural Engineering, a multi-year artist-driven on-line video exploration of the Arts Court redevelopment project for SAW Video which culminated in an exhibition in 2018; and She Wants an Output: A Herstory of Punk in Ottawa for Carleton University Art Gallery in 2017. A member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), his writing on art and culture has appeared in publications such as BlackFlash, Border Crossings, C Magazine, Canadian Art, and the National Gallery of Canada Magazine. He is the Akimbo Akimblog arts correspondent for the National Capital Region.

Michael Davidge est artiste, écrivain et commissaire indépendant. Il est titulaire d'une maîtrise en littérature anglaise de l'Université Concordia et d'une maîtrise en beaux-arts de l’Université Western. Il adhère à la culture menée par les artistes et a été directeur artistique du Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre à Kingston avant de déménager à Ottawa en 2012. Parmi ses projets les plus récents, citons Cultural Engineering, une exploration vidéo en ligne menée par de multiples artistes sur plusieurs années sur le projet de réaménagement de Arts Court pour SAW Video qui a abouti à une exposition en 2018; et She Wants An Output: A Herstory of Punk in Ottawa pour la galerie d'art de l'Université Carleton en 2017. Membre de l'Association internationale des critiques d'art (AICA), ses écrits sur l'art et la culture ont paru dans des publications telles que BlackFlash, Border Crossings, C Magazine, Art canadien et le magazine du Musée des beaux-arts du Canada. Il est le correspondant artistique d’Akimbo Akimblog pour la région de la capitale nationale.

Portrait photo of Andrew Morrow

Andrew Morrow

Andrew Morrow is an award-winning, contemporary Canadian painter, whose professional practice is characterized by a restless desire to both inhabit and extend historical, narrative painting. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Queen’s University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Ottawa. Morrow’s work has been widely exhibited and reviewed throughout Canada and abroad. In addition to his practice as an artist, Morrow is a professor at the University of Ottawa, and a board member with the Council for the Arts in Ottawa. Morrow lives in Chelsea, QC, with his wife and two sons.

Andrew Morrow est peintre canadien contemporain lauréat, dont sa pratique professionnelle se caractérise par un désir insatiable d'occuper et d'étendre la peinture narrative historique. Il est titulaire d’un baccalauréat en beaux-arts de l’Université Queen’s et d’une maîtrise en beaux-arts de l’Université d’Ottawa. Le travail de Morrow a été largement exposé et revu au Canada et à l’étranger. En plus de sa pratique d'artiste, Morrow est professeur à l'Université d'Ottawa et membre du conseil d'administration du Conseil des arts d'Ottawa. Morrow vit à Chelsea, QC, avec sa femme et ses deux fils.

Portrait photo of Joanne Stober

Joanne Stober

Joanne Stober is a curator and programmer who has spent nearly two decades managing National collections of historical and contemporary art and photography at the Library and Archives Canada and as the Historian of War and Visual Culture at the Canadian War Museum. Her work is committed to managing and building collections, creating relationships with donors and stakeholders and working with Canadian artists. Joanne specializes in photography and film and focuses her work on curating and programming a mix of historical and contemporary works focusing on photojournalism and conflict. She has her PhD in Communications and Film History from Concordia University and teaches in the Visual Arts faculty at the University of Ottawa and is an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University in the School of Art and Culture. She has served twelve combined years on the Executive of the International Society of Cinema and Media Studies Archives Committee and the Film Studies Association of Canada. She is a regular contributor to BorderCrossings.

Joanne Stober est une commissaire et une programmatrice qui gère depuis près de 20 ans des collections nationales d'art et de photographie historiques et contemporaines à Bibliothèque et Archives Canada et comme historienne de la guerre et de la culture visuelle au Musée canadien de la guerre. Son travail consiste à gérer et à créer des collections, à créer des relations avec les donateurs et les intervenants et à travailler avec des artistes canadiens. Joanne se spécialise dans la photographie et le cinéma et concentre son travail sur la sélection et la programmation d'un mélange d'œuvres historiques et contemporaines axées sur le photojournalisme et les conflits. Elle détient un doctorat en communications et en histoire du cinéma de l'Université Concordia et elle enseigne à la faculté des arts visuels de l'Université d'Ottawa et est également professeure auxiliaire à l'école d'art et de culture de l'Université Carleton. Elle a siégé pendant douze ans à la direction du comité d'archives de la Société internationale du film et des études sur les médias et de la Film Studies Association of Canada. Elle contribue régulièrement à BorderCrossings.

Winners

Congratulations to the 2019 winners selected from 530 entries from 346 artists located across Canada and internationally.

Michigan Man after Arcimboldo by John Healey, 2019, Framed archival pigment print on Baryta, 40in x 32in

2019 First Prize – $4000

Michigan Man after Arcimboldo

by John Healey

As described by the jury: The technical brilliance of this composition is at once classical and contemporary. The materials used are a testament of the precarious state of our environment at this time, and foretells the dire consequences of our consumption habits.

Artist statement: "This work is a part of the Plastic Beach project. The plastic to create this work comes from items taken from Lake Michigan. "Plastic Beach magnifies the evidence of human polluting of freshwater resources by showing us the stuff right under our feet. It confronts us with the beauty of the very thing with which we are unwittingly poisoning the environment and ultimately ourselves."

Michigan Man after Arcimboldo by John Healey, 2019, Framed archival pigment print on Baryta, 40in x 32in

Scott Waters, 2019, Oil and acrylic on panel, 36in x 24in

2nd Prize – $1750

Turner & Hooch II

Scott Waters, 2019, Oil and acrylic on panel, 36in x 24in

Jury statement

An accomplished and compelling self portrait of a middle aged man, contemplative and self deprecating. The unfinished quality suggests the passage of time and in the artist's words; raises the middle finger to death.

Artist statement

The painting addresses the passage of time and a resistance to that unassailable fact. The band Metallica does a fine job of standing in for middle-aged white guys who, well past their artistic prime, just keep on trying. Perhaps the same can be said for the painter/sitter in this portrait. The tactical backpack is a reference to military culture (domain of the young and/or busted), and though unknowable, the aging cat is in the early stages of kidney failure. In short, this painting is a love letter (and a middle finger against) mortality. Relatedly, the nature occasionally realist nature of this painting is another reference to time: Specifically, the physical and temporal process of construction. So, on the one hand, stopping short "robs" the viewer of the often-desired high realism portraiture, but at the same time, the painting is frozen before completion, leaving both sitters in a state of half-life, permanently held between start and finish.

Lindsay Irene, 2019, Digital inkjet print on cotton rag, 40in x 32in

3rd Prize – $1000

Retired

Lindsay Irene, 2019, Digital inkjet print on cotton rag, 40in x 32in

Jury statement

It has a powerful visual impact and backstory. There is a duality of strength and vulnerability in this unconventional direct and honest self portrait.

Artist statement

It wasn't the sex that was hard. In fact, sex was the easy part. It was catering to men who felt justified in seeing me while their wives were at home undergoing chemotherapy, the men who hurt my peers and tried to find sneaky ways of getting me to show up at their front door, the men who followed me throughout my career and beyond with an uneasy obsession, and the men who pined after my petite body and compared me to their teenage daughters (always announced while climaxing). That was the hard part.

I had stopped seeing clients for about a year at the time of this photo, yet I still encountered manipulative men from my past who seemed to always find ways of sustaining a once finite relationship. It was one night in particular that my feelings rose to the surface and I reacted by composing a photo announcing to the world that, in no uncertain terms, I was finished with the industry and to leave me alone.

It worked.

Rosemarie Peloquin, 2017, Hand needle-felted wool sculpture around a wood trunk slab, 33in x 11in x 18in

Honorable Mention – $500

Esprit des aulniers

Rosemarie Peloquin, 2017, Hand needle-felted wool sculpture around a wood trunk slab, 33in x 11in x 18in

Jury statement

The piece shows a hight level of technical skill. The choice and integration of natural materials conveys a deeper wisdom.

Artist statement

Researching my mother's name I discovered the alder (aulne) was one of the trees in the druid's sacred grove. I melt wood and wool to personify these ancient repositories of communal wisdom.

Michael Goodson, 2019, Acrylic and Silicone on Masonite board, 72in x 48in

People's Choice Award – $250

Terroir

Michael Goodson, 2019, Acrylic and Silicone on Masonite board, 72in x 48in

Artist statement

My painting explores the skin of paint as both a place of conjuring presence and as a medium exuding its own qualities. I would like to reflect an understanding of the way this skin suggests and creates empathy in the viewer through the dimpled sag of slackened skin, the muscular furrows of a worried brow and the scoring of laugh-lined cheeks. My work addresses both the languages of representation and our visceral responses to material.

Gallery of Finalists

In alphabetical order by artists name.

ackerman andrew specimen ph762

Specimen PH762

Andrew Ackerman, 2018, Silicone, pigment, human hair, metal, resin, plastic, 6in x 6in x 2in

Durrah Alsaif Qimash

Qimash

Durrah Alsaif, 2017, Video 11:22

Nima Arabi, 2019, Charcoal on Flooring Paper, 32in x 20in

Self-portrait; Among Others

Nima Arabi, 2019, Charcoal on Flooring Paper, 32in x 20in

Kendall Ayoub-Nichols, 2018, Oil on Canvas, 60in x 36in

Thomas

Kendall Ayoub-Nichols, 2018, Oil on Canvas, 60in x 36in

Steven Bradbury, 2018, Pastel and Colored Pencil, 36in x 30in

My Tropic of Cancer

Steven Bradbury, 2018, Pastel and Colored Pencil, 36in x 30in

creighton robert up on the high wire

Up on the high wire

Robert Creighton, 2019, colour, relief and mixed intaglio with chine colle, 17in x 22in

Christine De Vuono, 2018, steel apron, mason jars with figures inside on shelf, 50in x 50in

My Armour/Mon Amour and "My fate is Sealed"

Christine De Vuono, 2018, steel apron, mason jars with figures inside on shelf, 50in x 50in

Christine De Vuono, 2019, photographic collage, 36in x 36in

Summer

Christine De Vuono, 2019, photographic collage, 36in x 36in

Benjamin Entner, 2016, Marker on Paper, 84in x 60in

Sumus: Discobolos

Benjamin Entner, 2016, Marker on Paper, 84in x 60in

Allison Fagan, CPSA, 2019, Coloured pencil and gouache on black Stonehenge paper, 21in x 18in

Selfie On The Edge

Allison Fagan, CPSA, 2019, Coloured pencil and gouache on black Stonehenge paper, 21in x 18in

Gary Franks, 2019, Pigment ink on photo rag, numbered edition of 3, framed, 24in x 36in

Samantha

Gary Franks, 2019, Pigment ink on photo rag, numbered edition of 3, framed, 24in x 36in

Brandon Giessmann, 2019, Polaroid Film and Shadowbox, 22in x 17in

BLUE MIRROR

Brandon Giessmann, 2019, Polaroid Film and Shadowbox, 22in x 17in

Brandon Giessmann, 2019, Polaroid Film and Shadowbox, 22in x 17in

CHRONICLE

Brandon Giessmann, 2019, Polaroid Film and Shadowbox, 22in x 17in

Gianni Giuliano, 2018, Oil and egg emulsion on linen, 40in x 30in

The Soothsayer of Untold Truths

Gianni Giuliano, 2018, Oil and egg emulsion on linen, 40in x 30in

Abigail Gossage, 2017, Photography, 15.6in x 30in

Worker

Abigail Gossage, 2017, Photography, 15.6in x 30in

Nicci Haynes, 2019, Video 3:07, 15.6in x 30in

Drawing.Dancing

Nicci Haynes, 2019, Video 3:07, 15.6in x 30in

Horst Herget, 2019, Photography: archival print from tintype plate, 25.5in x 19.5in

Futur Antérieur

Horst Herget, 2019, Photography: archival print from tintype plate, 25.5in x 19.5in

Niloo Inalouei, 2019, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 28in x 24in

The endless flowers of the sun

Niloo Inalouei, 2019, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 28in x 24in

Jason John, 2019, Oil on Polyester, 40in x 30in

Walter as Detroit

Jason John, 2019, Oil on Polyester, 40in x 30in

Louise Kermode, 2019, Oil on aluminum panel, 24in x 18in

Poised

Louise Kermode, 2019, Oil on aluminum panel, 24in x 18in

Patricia La Prairie, 2018, Pigment ink on cotton rag, 28.5in x 38in

Deflated

Patricia La Prairie, 2018, Pigment ink on cotton rag, 28.5in x 38in

Patricia La Prairie, 2019, Pigment ink on cotton rag, 28.5in x 38in

Nest

Patricia La Prairie, 2019, Pigment ink on cotton rag, 28.5in x 38in

Jaymie Lathem, 2019, Graphite and charcoal on duralar, 67in x 40in

Untitled Girl with stripes

Jaymie Lathem, 2019, Graphite and charcoal on duralar, 67in x 40in

Ava Margueritte, 2019, Photography, 24in x 24in

The Hardy Boys and the Girl in the Dresser

Ava Margueritte, 2019, Photography, 24in x 24in

Celeste Marten, 2019, Inkjet print on paper, 42in x 42in

Mom (There is No Stage Five)

Celeste Marten, 2019, Inkjet print on paper, 42in x 42in

Angelina McCormick, 2019, Pigment Print, 24in x 24in

Johnny Vegas

Angelina McCormick, 2019, Pigment Print, 24in x 24in

Addie Kae Mingilton, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 36in x 36in

Mulattos on a Coach

Addie Kae Mingilton, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 36in x 36in

Tamar Segev, 2019, Colored pencil, charcoal, and oil paint on Arches Oil Paper, 22in x 15in

Letter to Eran, 1989

Tamar Segev, 2019, Colored pencil, charcoal, and oil paint on Arches Oil Paper, 22in x 15in

Bonnie Sheckter, 2019, Prismacolor on Matte Acetate, 13.12in x 16.37in

Amara

Bonnie Sheckter, 2019, Prismacolor on Matte Acetate, 13.12in x 16.37in

Aaron Sidorenko, 2018, Oil and acrylic on linen, 72in x 72in

WWII #3

Aaron Sidorenko, 2018, Oil and acrylic on linen, 72in x 72in

Mike Steinhauer, 2019, Inkjet print on Epson Premium Luster paper, 20in x 20in

Echo chamber

Mike Steinhauer, 2019, Inkjet print on Epson Premium Luster paper, 20in x 20in

Mike Steinhauer, 2019, Inkjet print on Epson Premium Luster paper, 20in x 20in

Walking past patriarchy

Mike Steinhauer, 2019, Inkjet print on Epson Premium Luster paper, 20in x 20in