Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award exhibition
Apr 27 - Jun 17, 2023
Exhibition Artists
Séamus Gallagher
Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes
Clara Lacasse
OTTAWA, Wednesday, April 19, 2023—Scotiabank and the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) announced today that lens-based visual artists Hannah Doucet and Wynne Neilly from Toronto, and Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez, from Vancouver, are the winners of the 2023 Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award (NGPA).
Each of the winners will receive $10,000 in prize money and will have a selection of their works displayed at Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto, as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival’s 27th Edition, which opens April 28 in Toronto, as well as in a special exhibition at the NGC in the fall of 2023. The latter is supported by the Scotiabank Photography Program at the Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada Foundation. Andrea Kunard, Senior Curator, Photographs, at the National Gallery of Canada and Chair of the Scotiabank NGPA jury, is curating both exhibitions. The three artists will also be mentored by the NGC curatorial team.
“The 2023 winners of the Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award explore the many challenges in contemporary representations of the body, identity, culture, and history. Photographs and videos explore and push against boundaries of the cultural and natural to new possibilities of existence and relationships. As much as their images operate as critical statements on contemporary life, they also function to open dialogue and create community. With great visual sophistication, care, and curiosity, the Scotiabank NGPA winners demonstrate the continued power and significance of lens-based images to both probe shared concerns and anxieties and offer new insights into negotiating an image saturated culture,” said Andrea Kunard, Senior Curator, Photographs, at the NGC and Chair of the NGPA jury.
“We join our partners and jury members in celebrating the three winners of the Scotiabank NGPA Award 2023! Through their respective practices, these talented artists share their valuable perspectives on our world. This aligns with the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic visual art experiences that enable new ways of seeing ourselves, others and our different stories. We look forward to presenting their photographic works of art this fall to the many communities the Gallery exists to serve,” said Angela Cassie, Interim Director and CEO, National Gallery of Canada.
“The National Gallery of Canada Foundation salutes the three winners of the 2023 Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award and extends warm thanks to our dedicated partner Scotiabank for their ongoing championship of Canada’s emerging lens-based artists. The work of these three artists is exemplary of art as a conduit for meaningful dialogue, and we are delighted these works will be presented to visitors at the National Gallery of Canada,” said Lisa Turcotte, Chief Executive Officer, National Gallery of Canada Foundation.
“Congratulations to 2023 winners, Hannah, Wynne, and Gonzalo. Scotiabank has a deep passion for supporting the arts across Canada and that includes helping young artists grow through unique opportunities like the Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award. We are proud to partner with the National Gallery of Canada and look forward to the winner’s exhibit in Ottawa this fall,” said Laura Curtis Ferrera, Chief Marketing Officer, Scotiabank.
The jury was composed of Deanna Bowen, artist and past winner of the Scotiabank Photography Award (2021), Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes, artist and past winner of the New Generation Photography Award (2022), and curator Bernard Lamarche (Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec) selected the winners from a longlist that also included the following eight lens-based artists:
Alex Antle, Newfoundland and Labrador
Georgia Dawkin, Newfoundland and Labrador
Annie France Noël, New Brunswick
Tanea Hynes, Québec
Jackson Klie, Ontario
Lucy Lu, Ontario
Mariana Muñoz Gomez, Manitoba
Gabriel Esteban Molina, Alberta
Launched in 2017 by the NGC in partnership with Scotiabank, the Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award supports the careers of talented Canadian artists aged 35 and under working behind the camera, by recognizing outstanding photographic images.
About the winners:
Hannah Doucet’s photographs, videos and sculptures explore fantasy, illness, the body, anxiety and performativity. An artist, arts educator and cultural worker, Doucet has exhibited across Canada, with exhibitions at Neutral Ground (Regina) Duplex (Vancouver), PLATFORM (Winnipeg), The New Gallery (Calgary) and Gallery 44 (Toronto). Doucet was the inaugural winner of the 2017 PLATFORM photography award and was long listed for the 2019 New Generation Photography award. She is one of four founders of Blinkers, a project space based in Winnipeg, where she was a co-director until August 2021.
Wynne Neilly is a queer, trans identified, visual artist and award-winning photographer who explores and balances a fine art and commercial practice. Known for his portraits that investigate into and engage with the queer and trans identity, he received critical attention for his TIME Magazine’s monumental cover of Elliot Page in 2021. Currently based in Prince Edward County, ON, his work has been included in exhibitions internationally; including but not limited to: The Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives; Gallery TPW; Joseph Gross Gallery (Tucson); The Art Gallery of Burlington; International Center of Photography (New York); The Annenberg Space for Photography (Los Angeles); and Sørlandet Art Museum (Norway).
Using materials such as archival photographs, found ephemeral images, magazine interviews and film/tv scripts, Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez overlays the recent past against the present, exploring how images can be still but in motion, historical yet continuously present. Based in Vancouver, BC, Rodriguez has had solo exhibitions in Winnipeg, Mexico City, and Chicago. His work has been featured in Peripheral Review, Artforum, Musée Magazine and Hyperallergic. Rodriguez received his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and in 2019 was a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
About the National Gallery of Canada
The NGC is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé—an Anishinaabemowin word that means “everything is connected”—reflects the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. The NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European art from the 14th to the 21st century. Founded in 1880, the NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years.
To find out more about the Gallery’s programming and activities, visit gallery.ca and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. #Ankose #EverythingIsConnected #ToutEstRelié.
About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by its purpose: “for every future”, the bank helps its customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of approximately 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.2 trillion (as at January 31, 2022), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow on Twitter @ScotiabankViews.
About the National Gallery of Canada Foundation
The National Gallery of Canada Foundation is dedicated to supporting the National Gallery of Canada in fulfilling its mandate. By fostering strong philanthropic partnerships, the Foundation provides the Gallery with the additional financial support required to lead Canada’s visual arts community locally, nationally and internationally. The blend of public support and private philanthropy empowers the Gallery to preserve and interpret Canada’s visual arts heritage. The Foundation welcomes present and deferred gifts for special projects and endowments. To learn more about the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, visit ngcfoundation.ca and follow us on Twitter @NGC_Foundation.