HNATYSHYN FOUNDATION VISUAL ARTS AWARDS TO KEN LUM AND LOUISE DéRY

Vancouver artist Ken Lum and Montreal gallery director and curator Louise Déry won the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Awards on Monday, reports the CBC. The awards, named for former Canadian governor general Ray Hnatyshyn, are given annually for outstanding achievement by a Canadian artist and for curatorial excellence in contemporary art. The artist award comes with a cash prize of twenty-five thousand dollars, and the curator’s award has a cash prize of fifteen thousand dollars. Lum, fifty-one, is a painter, sculptor, photographer, and conceptual artist. “Taken together, Ken Lum’s activities constitute an active, critical engagement with the public as to what art is, how it is used, and who has access to it,” the jury said. Déry is director of the art gallery at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has also worked at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In 2007, Déry curated the David Altmejd exhibition in the Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.