BC's Dempsey Bob and Lou Lynn win Governor-General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts
Video portraits of eight artists released as part of this year’s prize
Dempsey Bob’s Frogs Talking, courtesy Equinox Gallery.
Lou Lynn’s Tools as Artifacts, detail, courtesy of the artist.
TERRACE-BASED Tahltan and Tlingit carver and sculptor Dempsey Bob has just won a Governor-General’s Award in Visual Arts, a national artistic achievement award that recognizes his entire body of work. Bob began carving in 1969 and trained at the Gitanmaax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art; today, he’s renowned for his animated bronze and wooden sculptures, which blend the traditional and contemporary.
Meanwhile Winlaw, BC’s Lou Lynn, celebrated for her remarkable use of glass in sculpture, has earned the Saidye Bronfman Award. It is the highest distinction in Canadian fine craft artistry. Lynn began exploring the sculptural potential of glass in the mid-1980s and studied at the famed Pilchuck Glass School.
You can learn much more about the artists in the videos below, created specifically as part of this year’s prize, in partnership with the Independent Media Arts Alliance and created by Canadian filmmakers. Winners also receive $25,000 each and a bronze medallion.
“Dempsey Bob is recognized as one of few master carvers of his Nation who is pushing the art forward, successfully blending contemporary with the traditional style of Tahltan-Tlingit sculptural art, while remaining true to its complex protocols and unique design history,” said his nominator Jim Logan.
Lynn, meanwhile, was praised for work that “not only draws us in to admire its skillful and aesthetically pleasing facture—it makes us think about our histories as makers and about the hand, mind and body working in concert to create beautiful and functional objects that enrich our world,” according to nominators Raine Mckay, executive director of the Craft Council of BC, and artist and writer Amy Gogart.
Eight artists in all, many of them Indigenous, were named for the awards today. They include Toronto and Saskatchewan interdisciplinary artist Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Montreal media artist Luc Courchesne, Winnipeg visual artist Lori Blondeau, Toronto visual artist Bonnie Devine, Yellowknife visual artist Germaine Arnaktauyok, and Hamilton visual artist and curator Bryce Kanbara.
“It is with great enthusiasm that I would like to acknowledge the inspiring work and exceptional contribution of these talented artists,” Canada Council for the Arts CEO and director Simon Brault said in today’s announcement. “We are recognizing a record number of First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists this year. This pivotal moment is a testament to the strength of art—particularly Indigenous art—in this country.”
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