The Audain Prize for the Visual Arts (Audain Prize) is an annual award that recognizes a distinguished Canadian artist. Worth $100,000, it is one of Canada's most significant honours for the arts. The prize is supported by the Audain Foundation and presented by the

Audain Art Museum The Audain Art Museum is a 56,000-square-foot private museum located in Whistler, British Columbia, housing the private art collection of Michael Audain. Designed by Patkau Architects and opened to the public in 2016, it holds a comprehensive perm ...

History

The Audain Prize was established in 2004 by

Michael Audain Michael James Audain, (born July 31, 1937) is a Canadian home builder, philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and major shareholder of the privately held Polygon Homes Ltd., one of the largest multi-family builders in British Colu ...

, Chair of the Audain Foundation. In 2019, the prize amount was increased to $100,000, bringing it in line with the

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

and the

Sobey Art Award The Sobey Art Award is Canada's largest prize for young Canadian artists. It is named after Canadian businessperson and art collector Frank H. Sobey, who established The Sobey Art Foundation. It is an annual prize given to an artist 40 and under wh ...

, and renamed (previously the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts). From 2004 to 2018, the Audain Prize was funded by the Audain Foundation and administered by the Vancouver Art Gallery, in conjunction with the VIVA Awards. Since 2019, the Audain Prize continues to be supported by the Audain Foundation but is now administered by the Audain Art Museum.

Selection

An independent jury, comprising members of the visual arts community, brings forth nominations, discusses, and then selects a recipient. Included are the director or chief curators of the following institutions:

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) is an art museum located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Situated in Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a building complex; made up of the Spencer Mansion, and the Exhibition Galleries. The ...

, Audain Art Museum, Morris & Helen Belkin Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, and one past prize recipient. One recipient is selected annually, although in 2013, the jury made an exception and selected two recipients -

Gathie Falk Gathie Falk is a Canadian painter, sculptor, installation and performance artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Since the 1960s, she has created works that consider the simple beauty of everyday items and daily rituals. Life and work Ga ...

and

Takao Tanabe Takao Tanabe, (born 16 September 1926) is a Canadian artist who painted abstractly for decades, but over time, his paintings became nature-based. Biography Born Takao Izumi in Seal Cove, today part of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, the son o ...

. In 2020, as a result of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts community, it was decided to allocate the prize monies to artist-run centres in British Columbia.

Recipients

Ann Kipling Ann Kipling L.L.D (1934 August30, 2023) was a Canadian artist who created impressionistic portraits and landscapes in drawings and prints on paper from direct observation. Kipling's distinctive style of overlapping, temporally suggestive line ...

(2004) *

Edward J. Hughes Edward J. Hughes (July 26, 1888 – June 28, 1944) was an American politician. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Hughes studied law and then switched to engineering. Hughes served in the Illinois State Senate from 1914 to 1930 as a Democratic Party ...

(2005) *

Eric Metcalfe Eric Metcalfe D.F.A. is a Canadian visual and performance artist. Early life Eric Metcalfe was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. He travelled to Europe in 1960 and 1961, and on his return, worked as a ...

(2006) *

Gordon Smith Gordon Smith may refer to: In politics *Gordon H. Smith (born 1952), former U.S. Senator from Oregon, and current Area Authority for the LDS Church * Gordon Elsworth Smith (1918–2005), Canadian politician * Gordon Smith (academic) (1927–2009), ...

(2007) *

Jeff Wall Jeffrey Wall, Order of Canada, OC, Royal Society of Canada, RSA (born September 29, 1946) is a Canadian artist best known for his large-scale back-lit Cibachrome photographs and art history writing. Early in his career, he helped define the Van ...

(2008) * Liz Magor (2009) * Robert Davidson (2010) *

Rodney Graham William Rodney Graham (January 16, 1949 – October 22, 2022) was a Canadian visual artist and musician. He was closely associated with the Vancouver School. Early life Graham was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on January 16, 1949. ...

(2011) * Marian Penner Bancroft (2012) *

and

(2013) *

Fred Herzog Fred Herzog D.F.A. (September 21, 1930 – September 9, 2019) devoted his artistic life to walking the streets of Vancouver as well as almost 40 countries with his Leica, photographing - mostly with colour slide film - his observations of the st ...

(2014) * Michael Morris (2015) * Paul Wong (2016) *

Carole Itter Carole Itter (born September 29, 1939) is a Canadian artist, writer, performer and filmmaker. Life Itter attended the Vancouver School of Art in 1961, which was renamed as the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1978 and then renamed agai ...

(2017) * Susan Point (2018) *

Stan Douglas Stan Douglas (born October 11, 1960) is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Douglas' film and video installations, photography and work in television frequently touch on the history of literature, cinema and music, while examining t ...

(2019) *12 Artist Run Centres (2020)

References

External links

{{url, https://audainprize.com, Official web site Canadian art awards