Dana Claxton, Cultural Belongings, 2016, LED Firebox with transmounted chromogenic transparency, Collection of Rosalind and Amir Adnani.
Professor Dana Claxton, department Head, was awarded one of Canada’s top artistic prizes, the prestigious Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award.
The annual $25,000 award recognizes a Canadian mid-career artist who has demonstrated excellence and innovation in their body of work, and shows promise of outstanding artistic achievement in the years ahead. Claxton was selected by a jury of leading Canadian curators and gallery directors.
This award recognizes Claxton’s work in film, video, photography, performance, multi-channel installation and curation. Her practice/praxis engages with the socio/comos/political, the spiritual, and the enchantment of the everyday.
“I am elated and honoured to receive this award. The generosity of the Hnatyshyn Foundation to acknowledge and support the arts is awe inspiring. I am inspired to start a very focused art collection from this amazing gift.”
Past winners of the Hnatyshyn mid-career Artist Prize include current AHVA Koerner Artist in Residence, Stan Douglas (2006), and former professor and alumni, Ken Lum (2007). Current professor and alumni, Scott Watson won the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art in 2010.
The Hnatyshyn Foundation is a private charity established by the late Right Honourable Ramon ‘Ray’ John Hnatyshyn, Canada’s twenty-fourth Governor General. Since it began programming in 2005, the Foundation has provided more than $3.5 million in support of Canadian visual artists, performing artists and curators.
