Audain Prize for Visual Art awards $100,000 to Ian Wallace

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At a luncheon held today in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, the Audain Prize for British Columbia’s most distinguished artists was awarded to Ian Wallace. Mr. Wallace is based in Vancouver and has been exhibited across Canada and internationally. He received the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts in 2004 and the Molson Prize in 2009. Wallace also taught at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design from 1972 to 1998.

The Audain Prize, which was established in 2004, is one of the big three annual Canadian arts awards granting the winner a cash prize of $100,000. The Scotiabank Giller Prize (celebrating excellence in Canadian fiction) and the Sobey Art Award (for a contemporary Canadian artist) are in this rare company.

“It is a great honour to make this award to one of B.C.’s greatest living artists – Ian Wallace,” says Michael Audain, Chairman of the Audain Foundation. “Besides having an outstanding international reputation, Mr. Wallace has had a considerable influence on younger artists.

“The Audain Foundation wants to see our leading artists become better known. After all, British Columbia has many important visual artists who are not as widely recognized as they should be,” says Michael Audain. “With some of the world’s best contemporary artists, we believe they should be better known by all British Columbians.”

In addition to the $100,000 Audain Prize for Visual Art, the Audain Foundation funds five $7,500 travel grants for students in university-level visual arts programs. This year the students are:

Nasim Pirhadi – University of British Columbia Okanagan
Kosar Movahedi – University of Victoria
Khim Hipol – Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Lauren Crazybull – Simon Fraser University
Sarvenaz Iraji – University of British Columbia

“The Audain Art Museum is proud to be the managing institution for this prestigious visual arts award, as our permanent collection is exclusively focused on noteworthy historic and contemporary art production in British Columbia,” says Director & Chief Curator, Dr. Curtis Collins. “Selected by an independent jury composed of curators and artists, such a prize speaks to the ongoing vitality of creativity across the province.”

The Audain Prize was established in 2004. Past Audain Prize recipients include: Ann Kipling, Edward J. Hughes, Eric Metcalfe, Gordon Smith, Jeff Wall, Liz Magor, Robert Davidson, Rodney Graham, Marian Penner Bancroft, Takao Tanabe, Gathie Falk, Fred Herzog, Michael Morris, Paul Wong, Carole Itter, Susan Point, Stan Douglas and Jim Hart.  

About The Audain Foundation
Established in 1997 to support the visual arts mainly in British Columbia, the Foundation has made over $140 million in grants, and recently announced a transformational gift of $100 million to the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2016, the Foundation expanded its scope to include wildlife conservation, with a special emphasis on grizzly bears.

About the Audain Art Museum
The Audain Art Museum is grateful to be on the shared, unceded territory of the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) Nation and Lil’wat (Lil̓wat7úl) Nation. It is located on Blackcomb Way adjacent to Whistler Village. Opened in 2016, the museum houses a large portion of the art collection that Michael Audain and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa amassed over the past 40 years. Their world-class Northwest Coast art collection is on permanent display, plus there are galleries for special exhibitions of Canadian and international art.

For media enquiries – please contact:

AUDAIN ART MUSEUM
Justine Nichol
Chief Marketing Officer
Cell: 604.789.4359
[email protected] 

AUDAIN FOUNDATION
Charley McIntyre
Associate Executive Director
Cell: 778.835.2876
[email protected]

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cddeefa4-223f-4f88-8102-9f099851e500

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/be002609-a643-418c-9aa7-90ae7bab0568