Daniel Young and Christian Giroux win the 2011 Sobey Art Award
The Curatorial Panel for the 2011 Sobey Art Award has announced that Young & Giroux representing Ontario are the recipients of the 50,000 CAD top prize. The announcement was made during a Gala event held at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. The Award was presented to the winning artists by the 2010 Sobey winner, Daniel Barrow and award-winning author and famed New Yorker contributor and art critic Adam Gopnik.The other shortlisted artists for this year’s Award were:
• Charles Stankievech (West Coast and Yukon);
• Sarah Anne Johnson (Prairies and the North);
• Manon De Pauw (Québec);
• Zeke Moores (Atlantic).
Each of these outstanding artists receives 5,000 CAD in prize money from the Sobey Art Foundation.
In commenting on Young & Giroux’s achievement, the Curatorial Panel said:
“Young & Giroux reflect a curious world where digital interfaces have become an inextricable part of our lives. Their collaborative practice seamlessly integrates works as diverse as architectural proposals for public spaces, typological films of infrastructure developments across Canada and re-tooled, pre-fabricated consumer goods. Their adaption of computer systems, logic and software embodies a language with which they investigate our more analogue tendencies, our affection for material, formal elements, space and our relationship with the lingering legacy of Modernism.”
The 2011 Sobey Art Award Curatorial Panel consists of:
• Mary Bradshaw, Gallery Director, Yukon Arts Centre;
• Ryan Doherty, Curator, Southern Alberta Art Gallery;
• Marnie Fleming, Curator of Contemporary Art, Oakville Art Galleries;
• Gaëtane Verna, Director and Chief Curator, Musée d’art de Joliette;
• Bruce Johnson, Curator of The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery.
Since its inception, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has organized and administered the Sobey Art Award and its accompanying exhibition. Every other year, the Award travels to a gallery or museum outside of Halifax. The 2011 Sobey Art Award shortlist exhibition is on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia until January 8, 2012.
About the Sobey Art Award
The Sobey Art Award, Canada’s pre-eminent award for contemporary Canadian art, was created in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation to celebrate new advances in contemporary art with the intention of inspiring public interest and shining a spotlight on the best of this country’s young artists. It is an annual prize given to an artist age 40 and under who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated. A total of 70,000 CAD in prize money is awarded annually; 50,000 CAD to the winner and 5,000 CAD to the other four finalists.
Previous winners are: 2002 Brian Jungen, West Coast and Yukon; 2004 Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Québec; 2006 Annie Pootoogook, Prairies and the North; 2007 Michel de Broin, Québec; 2008 Tim Lee, West Coast and Yukon; 2009 David Altmejd, Québec; 2010 Daniel Barrow, Prairies and the North.
For information: www.sobeyartaward.ca.
About Daniel Young and Christian Giroux
Daniel Young and Christian Giroux have been making art together since 2002. They produce sculpture, public art and film installations. Their work is the product of an ongoing conversation concerning the modernity of the mid-century, the production of space and the built environment. Their work has been shown at Scope Miami Beach, Ace Art Inc., the Power Plant, the ExiS festival, The Museum Fur Kunst and Gewerbe Hamburg, Mercer Union, the Akademie der Kunst through the Forum Expanded of the Berlinale and the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal (2011). Giroux teaches at the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph.
For information contact:
Bernard Doucet | Director of Development | Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Mobile 902 223 7246 | doucetbj@gov.ns.ca or
Donna Wellard | Marketing & Communications | Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Mobile 902 483 2019 | wellardc@gov.ns.ca
