The Grange Prize « The Grange Prize

Indian artist Gauri Gill wins $50,000 Grange Prize

November 1st, 2011

(TORONTO/MONTREAL – Nov. 1, 2011) After an eight-week public vote, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and Aeroplan are proud to announce that Delhi-based artist Gauri Gill is the winner of The Grange Prize 2011. The $50,000 prize is Canada’s largest photography prize, also granting $5,000 and an international residency to each of the runners-up, and is the only major Canadian art prize to have its winner chosen by the public.

Gill is an Indian photographer born in 1970 and based in Delhi, India, whose body of work includes a decade-long study of people living in marginalized communities in Rajasthan, India. Her photographs “often address ordinary heroism within challenging environments,” says a statement on behalf of the nominating jury, “depicting the artist’s often-intimate relationships with her subjects with a documentary spirit and a human concern over issues of survival.”

Read the whole press release

Tags: newsfeed
Posted in In the News, The Grange Prize | 1 Comment »

Spotlight on: Althea Thauberger

October 25th, 2011

In this series of blog posts we’ll be looking at each of the artists shortlisted for The Grange Prize 2011: Gauri Gill, Nandini Valli, Althea Thauberger and Elaine Stocki. The Prize is Canada’s only major art prize where the winner is chosen by the public. Vote now. Each year four fine art photographers, two from Canada and two from a partner country, are nominated by an international jury of experts. This year, the partner country is India. The Grange Prize is a partnership between the AGO and Aeroplan.

“It never appealed to me to be an artist who was separated from the world. I think the most exciting work I do is when I’m working in the world, socially-orientated photography is very much about that.” Althea Thauberger, artist statement (video), The Grange Prize 2011

Althea Thauberger’s work is hard to define. Using film and video as well as the photographs you can see as part of The Grange Prize exhibition, she documents her collaborations with people. The people she works with are often well-defined social groups, and the social experience is a key concern for this artist. She works with communities to develop performances that offer the members opportunities for self-exploration and self-definition. The works, which Thauberger produces to record the collaborations, are always extraordinarily striking documents that entice, engage and surprise her viewers. She is based in Vancouver and has been working as an artist for more than a decade.

Althea Thauberger (Canadian), Northern (Production still), 2005, 35mm film with sound transferred to HD video, 8:00 min. Courtesy of the artist. ©2011 Althea Thauberger.

Her work has been presented at the 17th Biennale of Sydney; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Guangzhou Triennial, China; Manifesta 7, Trento, Italy; Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; Vancouver Art Gallery; BAK, Utrecht; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax; Singapore History Museum; Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp; Berkeley Art Museum; Insite, San Diego/Tijuana; White Columns, New York; and Seattle Art Museum.

Althea Thauberger: At A Glance

Althea Thauberger was born in 1970. She received a BFA in photography from Concordia University in 2000 and an MFA from University of Victoria in 2002. She is currently studying part-time for a PhD in cultural theory.
She uses films, videos, audio recordings and books to explore themes of social, political, institutional and aesthetic power relations.
As a child she wasn’t allowed any friends who did not share the fundamentalist Christian beliefs of her family.
She was a tree planter for ten years.
One project took her to Kandahar, Afghanistan as a part of the Canadian War Artist program. Canada was still active at the front at the time of her trip.
Listen to a voice recording of Thauberger on Art Talk AM

Althea Thauberger (Canadian), Ecce Homo, 2011, laminated digital c-print. Commissioned by the City of Vancouver, Courtesy Susan Hobbs Gallery. ©2011 Althea Thauberger.

“It would be nearly impossible to accuse Vancouver artist Althea Thauberger of being weak or fearful; in fact she is quite the opposite. Not only does she happily invite controversy and criticism, but she willingly flew to Kandahar, Afghanistan as a part of the Canadian War Artist program while Canada was still active at the front. Not an adventure for the light of heart for sure, but one that Thauberger took on with her characteristic aplomb.”

To see more works from Althea Thauberger and to vote for her please visit http://www.thegrangeprize.com
Join The Grange Prize on Facebook

Tags: althea thauberger, canadian, photography, the grange prize
Posted in The Grange Prize | No Comments »

Spotlight on: Nandini Valli

October 19th, 2011

In this series of blog posts we’ll be looking at each of the artists shortlisted for The Grange Prize 2011: Gauri Gill, Nandini Valli, Althea Thauberger and Elaine Stocki. The Prize is Canada’s only major art prize where the winner is chosen by the public. Vote now. Each year four fine art photographers, two from Canada and two from a partner country, are nominated by an international jury of experts. This year, the partner country is India. The Grange Prize is a partnership between the AGO and Aeroplan.

“The first roll I ever shot… I saw the contact sheet and I was quite amazed. That got me hooked on photography; I wanted to shoot more and more pictures.” Nandini Valli, artist statement (video), The Grange Prize 2011

Nandini Valli (Indian), Spaceman, 2010, from the series Remembering to Forget, inkjet print on archival paper. Courtesy of the artist and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. © 2011 Nandini Valli.

Nandini Valli Muthiah has rapidly emerged as a key figure in Indian photography, and in particular in the realm of the performative photograph. She draws upon a long, established tradition in Indian popular art, the hyperrealist painted calendar poster of the gods, infecting it with a modern twist and executing the shot with the thoroughness of a cinema auteur. She shows heroic figures in ‘normal’ or ‘modern’ environments – blue-bodied god in a hotel room, or young girls masquerading as Indira Gandhi at a fancy dress show, are comments on India’s perception of the heroic as much as on middle-class aspirations

Born in 1976, Nandini Valli was raised in Chennai, India, where she continues to live. She completed several degrees before entering the field of photography. After an 18-month apprenticeship with a leading commercial photographer in Chennai, Nandini decided to pursue a B.A. Honours in Photography from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK (now known as The Arts University College at Bournemouth). This is where she realized she was more suited to producing art photography as opposed to commercial photography.

: Nandini Valli (Indian), Shiva, 2008, from the series Remembering to Forget, inkjet print on archival paper. Courtesy of the artist and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. © 2011 Nandini Valli.

Nandini Valli: At A Glance

Her location in Chennai influences her choice of equipment – as there is nowhere to get film professionally developed in Chennai, her focus is on digital photography.
She influenced by a diverse range of photographers including Gregory Crewdson, Tina Barney, Jonathan Torgovnik, Raja Deen Dayal, and Bourne & Shepard.
Her photographs are a subversive commentary on established traditions in Indian art, placing heroic figures from Indian mythology in wholly modern environments like hotel rooms, cars or school plays.
Valli has been showing her work publicly since 2007 and is currently represented by Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai, India.
Read some reviews and interviews with Nandini

“Fantasy or reality, the trained eye of this artist capture the nuances of life in breathtaking detail. The juxtaposition of the pinks against the blues, and the vivid imagery, all work in conformity to provide a fascinating insight into Nandini Valli Muthiah’s world where traditional concepts are constantly tweaked and twisted in a contemporary perspective.”

Nandini Valli (Indian), Disillusioned 1, 2003, from the series Definitive Reincarnate, inkjet print on archival paper, 36 x 36 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. © 2011 Nandini Valli.

To see more works from Nandini Valli and to vote for her please visit http://www.thegrangeprize.com
Join The Grange Prize on Facebook

Tags: India, Nandini Valli, photography
Posted in The Grange Prize | No Comments »

Spotlight on: Elaine Stocki

October 7th, 2011

“I’m purposely trying to be a little bit of a conundrum… my identity isn’t immediately so obvious. Who is this person photographing? Is she black, is she white? Is this a man, or is it a woman? Is she straight, is she gay?” Elaine Stocki, artist statement (video), The Grange Prize 2011

Elaine Stocki’s photographs began drawing critical attention when she was still an undergraduate student at the University of Manitoba. Now based in Brooklyn, she continues to hone a practice that challenges the expected limits of documentary photography by infusing its conventions with a constructed theatricality expressed in a voice uniquely her own. Working with subjects from a range of social standings –– Stocki creates compositions that explore the pressing issues of race, class and gender.

Elaine Stocki (Canadian), Balcony, 2009, chromogenic print, 66 x 66 cm. Courtesy of the artist © 2011 Elaine Stocki

While her themes are age-old, her language is remarkable in its seamless merging of reality and fantasy, order and disorder, humour and tragedy. Stocki roots herself in the history of photography, but has devised an approach to the medium which allows her to create images that are consistently unexpected and unconventional and always provocative.

Elaine Stocki: At A Glance

Stocki was raised in Winnipeg in 1979. She earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Manitoba before completing her Master’s degree in Photography at Yale University in 2009.
Her work, shot both in colour and in black and white, explores themes such as race, class and gender.
One method she uses to find subjects to photograph is by placing classified ads in newspapers and online in order to meet strangers.
Elaine has exhibited at the Deutsche Guggenheim (Berlin) and Zach Feuer (New York) as well as participating in Toronto’s CONTACT photography festival.
Read an interview with Elaine

Elaine Stocki (Canadian), Wall, 2008, platinum print, 38 x 38 cm. Courtesy of the artist © 2011 Elaine Stocki

“Elaine Stocki takes photographs of people in Winnipeg and New Haven, sometimes meeting them through classified ads that she has placed online or in the newspaper. She particularly likes photographing groups of people. Her interests lie in the investigation of performance, spectacle and farce as tools for questioning and blurring the lines of gender, race and class. Stocki is seeking some sort of genuine expression of emotion in what is a contrived situation.”

Elaine Stocki (Canadian), Hockey, 2008, platinum print, 38 x 38 cm. Courtesy of the artist © 2011 Elaine Stocki

To see more works from Elaine Stocki and to vote for her please visit http://www.thegrangeprize.com
Join The Grange Prize on Facebook

Posted in Art, Artists and Ideas, The Grange Prize | No Comments »

Spotlight on: Gauri Gill

September 22nd, 2011

In this series of blog posts we’ll be looking at each of the artists shortlisted for The Grange Prize 2011: Gauri Gill, Nandini Valli, Althea Thauberger and Elaine Stocki. The Prize is Canada’s only major art prize where the winner is chosen by the public. Vote now. Each year four fine art photographers, two from Canada and two from a partner country, are nominated by an international jury of experts. This year, the partner country is India. The Grange Prize is a partnership between the AGO and Aeroplan.

“Voices from the margins should continually enter the mainstream” Gauri Gill, artist statement (video), The Grange Prize 2011

Gauri Gill has recently emerged as one of India’s most significant young photographers. Born in Chandigarh in 1970, she currently lives and works in New Delhi. She has studied in India and America, receiving BFAs at the Delhi College of Art and at the Parsons School of Design as well as an MFA at Stanford University. Gill’s practice is complex because it contains several seemingly discrete lines of pursuit. These include her more than a decade long study of marginalized communities in Rajasthan, of women from different generations and their often tentative encounter with modernity.

Gauri Gill (Indian), Alok and Sumati Patel – Parekh Silicon Valley, California, 2001, from the series The Americans, 2002–2007, archival pigment print, 69 x 102 cm.

She has also investigated and recorded issues around migrancy, and the decrepitude and change generated by an expanding city. Working in both black and white as well as colour, she seeks out the narratives of ordinary heroism within challenging environments. Gill’s work also addresses the twinned Indian identity markers of class and community as determinants of mobility and social behaviour. In these works there is irony, a rugged documentary spirit and a human concern over issues of survival.

Gauri Gill: At A Glance

Gill was born in Chandigarh in 1970. The city, situated in Northern India, is the capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana and is India’s first planned city.
She currently lives in New Delhi, where she a co-editor at Camerawork Delhi, a free newsletter about independent photography.
Her work has been shown widely both in India and internationally.
She has run photo-workshops with rural girls in Lunkaransar, Tibetan students from Tibetan Children’s Village, Dharamsala and Afghan photographers in Kabul.
Themes present in her work include marginalized communities, Indian identity, migrancy, cities, challenging environments. She shoots in both black and white and in colour.
You can find out more about the artist at http://gaurigill.com/

Since she first started exhibiting in 2007 her work has been exhibited widely in India and across the world. Solo exhibitions include: What Remains, Green Cardamom Gallery, London (2011); Notes from the Desert, Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi; Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai; Focus Gallery, Chennai, and Urmul Setu, Lunkaransar (2010–2011) and The Americans, Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi; Thomas Welton Art Gallery, Stanford University; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago; Bose Pacia Gallery, Kolkata and New York, and Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga (2008–2011).

Guari Gill (Indian), Kundan Singh. Yuba City 2001, from the series The Americans, 2001, archival pigment print, 30 x 40 inches.

To see more works from Gauri Gill and to vote for her please visit http://www.thegrangeprize.com
Join The Grange Prize on Facebook

Tags: art prize, India, photography
Posted in Art, Artists and Ideas, The Grange Prize | No Comments »

Let the Voting Begin!

September 1st, 2011

The nominees for The Grange Prize 2011 have been announced and voting is now open! The Grange Prize is Canada’s biggest photography prize and YOU get to decide who takes home the $50,000. We’ve had a great response so far and lots of votes have already come in.

Get your voice heard and be sure to vote for your favourite artist!
Vote here: http://thegrangeprize.com/vote

This year, the competition is between two Canadian artists and two Indian artists. The nominees are:

GAURI GILL (India)
ELAINE STOCKI (Canada)
ALTHEA THAUBERGER (Canada)
NANDINI VALLI MUTHIAH (India)

‘Like’ The Grange Prize on facebook for the latest updates https://www.facebook.com/TheGrangePrize

Don’t forget about the FREE Launch Party happening on September 7^th, 2011 at the AGO from 7-10pm. This is your chance to meet the four artists and see their works in person! The celebration will feature drinks, snacks and a set by DJ Jaime Sin.

Posted in The Grange Prize | No Comments »

Two Canadian and Two Indian Photographers Shortlisted for $50,000 Grange Prize

August 30th, 2011

Online public vote and AGO exhibition open today; FREE public launch party on September 7

(TORONTO/MONTREAL – August 30, 2011) Four photographers — two each from Canada and India — have been shortlisted for The Grange Prize 2011, Canada’s largest cash prize for photography. The winner of the $50,000 prize is chosen by public vote, which opens today and continues through October 23 at www.thegrangeprize.com. The winner will be announced at a gala reception hosted by presenting partners Aeroplan and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) on November 1.

The finalists for The Grange Prize 2011 are:

Gauri Gill, an Indian photographer born in 1970 and based in Delhi, India, whose work documents narratives of ordinary heroism within challenging environments and includes a decade-long study of people living in marginalized communities in Rajasthan. Gill’s photographs address the twinned Indian identity markers of class and community and document the artist’s often-intimate relationships with her subjects.

Elaine Stocki, a Canadian photographer born in 1979 in Winnipeg, who works with subjects from a range of social conditions to create compositions that explore issues of race, class and gender. Her images challenge the limits of documentary photography by utilizing its techniques and conventions to express constructed, fictive narratives.

Althea Thauberger, a Canadian photographer born in 1970 and based in Vancouver, who has garnered attention over the past decade for photographs, films and video that explore her engagements and collaborations with groups of people, most often distinct social enclaves, resulting in performances of identity and self-definition that are strikingly and powerfully documented by the artist.

Nandini Valli, an Indian photographer born in 1976 and based in Chennai, India, whose carefully constructed, cinematic images of her subjects, often costumed as mythologized heroes and gods and photographed in contemporary settings, have placed her at the forefront of the emerging performance-based photography movement in India.

The four finalists were selected by a nominating jury comprising AGO acting curator of Canadian art Michelle Jacques; Wayne Baerwaldt, the acting vice president of research and academic affairs at the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary; Gayatri Sinha, a Delhi-based art critic and curator; and Sunil Gupta, a photographer, writer and curator born in India and living in New Delhi and London, UK.

Read the whole press release

Bottom Right: Nandini Valli Muthiah (Indian), Seated 1, 2006, Definitive Reincarnate series. Inkjet print on archival paper. 31 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. © 2011 Nandini Valli Muthiah

Tags: newsfeed
Posted in In the News, The Grange Prize | No Comments »

Make Your Mark on Canada’s Biggest Photography Prize

August 17th, 2011

The Grange Prize is Canada’s largest cash prize for photography and the only major Canadian art prize whose winner is chosen by a public vote. Each year, The Grange Prize Nominating Jury selects a shortlist of four extraordinary photographic artists – two from Canada and two from a partner country. Their work goes on view at the AGO and online at thegrangeprize.com, and then it’s up to you to decide which photographer should win the $50,000 prize. The 2011 shortlist will be announced August 30, the same day that public voting begins. Find out more about The Grange Prize

The Grange Prize recognizes that contemporary photography includes a broad range of diverse practices and places no limitations on approach, subject matter, technology, or presentation. Artists are selected for excellence in the medium. Watch a clip of last year’s winner, Kristan Horton, talking about The Grange Prize.

How to get involved:

Step One
Join us on the The Grange Prize Facebook page. We’ll give you access to ‘behind-the-scenes’ updates, exclusive contests and great content about this year’s nominees.

Step Two
Celebrate the arrival of The Grange Prize 2011 at an amazing free launch party at the AGO on Wednesday September 7. The celebration will feature drinks, snacks and a set by DJ Jaime Sin in the AGO’s Walker Court, along with video interviews and live advocates highlighting each of the four shortlisted artists. You’ll also get a chance to meet the artists in person and view their work inside The Grange Prize 2011 Exhibition. Don’t forget to save the date.

Step Three
Cast your vote! Voting opens on August 30 and you can vote in person at the AGO or by visiting thegrangeprize.com. You have until October 29 to make your choice, and the artist who receives the most votes will receive the $50,000 prize at a gala reception at the AGO on November 1. Send me a reminder when voting opens

The Grange Prize is a unique partnership between the Art Gallery of Ontario and Aeroplan, The Grange Prize aims to engage the public in a vital discourse about the power and prevalence of photography in our world today through public exhibitions, voting and online dialogue.

Tags: grange prize, photography
Posted in The Grange Prize | 1 Comment »

The Grange Prize 2011

March 9th, 2011

We are thrilled to announce that the Grange Prize 2011 will feature Indian and Canadian artists. The shortlist will be selected by a Canadian and Indian jury led by AGO curator Michelle Jacques who is joined by Wayne Baerwaldt, Director and Curator of exhibitions at the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary, artist and curator Sunil Gupta, and art critic and curator Gayatri Sinha, both based in New Delhi, India. The 2011 nominees will be announced on August 30, the same day that the public can begin voting for their favourite artist and see the exhibition at the AGO.

Tags: newsfeed
Posted in The Grange Prize | No Comments »

And the winner is…

November 12th, 2010

On November 3rd at a public announcement in the AGO’s Walker Court, we announced that Canadian Kristan Horton had won the Grange Prize 2010. Check back in the new year when will start announcing the details for the Grange Prize 2011!