OTTAWA, ON .- Every year, The Hnatyshyn Foundation awards one visual artist and one curator at mid-career a prize for excellence in their disciplines. This year, the laureates are Bridget Moser (artist) and Sharon Fortney (curator).

Bridget Moser is the recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award ($25,000). Moser is a performance and video artist who combines strategies associated with prop comedy, experimental theatre, performance art, absurd literature, existential anxiety, and intuitive dance. She performs fragmented scenes that take multiple forms, including monologues, abstract body movement, and bizarre interactions with everyday inanimate objects. Her work deals with the trouble of constructing self-identity and the conditions of life under late capitalism.

Moser has presented work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Remai Modern, le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Western Front, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, SPACES Cleveland, and Xing Raum, Bologna. Her work has been reviewed and featured in Artforum, Frieze, Canadian Art, C Magazine, Art in America, and Artribune Italy, and she has been shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award. She holds a “somewhat weathered and ancient” BFA from Concordia University and for the past 10 years has worked a day job at the top plastic surgery practice in Canada. She thanks Paul Tjepkema for unparalleled support and creative collaboration, Amy Ching-Yan Lam and Jon Pham McCurley for their labour and advocacy, and her family for its encouragement and care.

SELECTION COMMITTEE

This year, the Mid-Career Artist Award recipient was selected by Lesley Johnstone (Director of Exhibitions and Research, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal), Suzy Lake (Artist, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto, and Professor Emerita, University of Guelph), Philip Monk (Independent writer), Monique Régimbald-Zeiber (Painter), and Jana Sterbak (Multi-disciplinary artist).

The selection committee members note Moser’s unique brand of humour and her fresh contribution to Canadian art. Lesley Johnstone notes, “Moser’s practice is very smart, and she is in tune with what’s going on in the art world.” Similarly, Monique Régimbald-Zeiber said: “there is something desperate in her logorrhea that screams. She has a strong presence.” “I found Bridget's playful humour subversively distilled the darker critical position in her videos,” notes celebrated Canadian artist Suzy Lake.

The committee members also note Moser’s dedication to performance art, which is challenging to publicize and monetize, and her raw approach to performance.

WORDS FROM MOSER

“I am really honoured to receive this award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation and to join this list of previous recipients whose work I greatly admire, including brilliant performers like Rebecca Belmore and Maria Hupfield. I am so thankful to this group of esteemed selection committee members, many of whom have influenced my practice. Perhaps one strength of my work is its profound unprofitability, and to that end, this prize will substantially support its continued existence and evolution—a support for which I have immense gratitude.”




In 2015, Moser also won the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s annual William and Meredith Saunderson Prize for Emerging Artists. The fact that this year’s selection committee felt that, only eight years after winning a prize for an emerging artist, Moser was deserving of this prestigious mid-career award, is a testament to The Hnatyshyn Foundation and its selection committees’ ability to recognize and support truly exceptional talent.

Sharon Fortney is the recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence ($15,000). Fortney is the Curator of Indigenous Collections and Engagement at the Museum of Vancouver. Having grown up in Victoria and been fascinated by the Royal BC Museum (RBCM) from a young age, Fortney pursued archaeological studies and has worked in museums ever since. She began working as a curator in 2000. Fortney discovered her Coast Salish heritage thanks to her experiences at the RBCM, during which she recognized Salish baskets made in the same style as those at her grandparents’ home. During her career, she has worked with institutions as well as directly with First Nations.

“It is important to me that my work supports what communities are trying to achieve,” she explains. “Right now, I am undertaking ‘Knowledge Repatriation’ work by curating workshops about traditional knowledge no longer practiced in Vancouver, for members of the host nations. This involves working with knowledge holders from neighboring Salish communities to learn about harvesting materials and creating different types of belongings. I am learning beside my friends, and we are documenting our work for teaching others in their communities.”

SELECTION COMMITTEE DECISION

This year’s selection committee was composed of Audrey Genois (Executive Director of MOMENTA | Biennale de l'image), Jon Tupper (former Director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and current Principal Consultant with the Arena Cultural Planning Group), Su Ying Strang (Executive Director, Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin, Lethbridge), Jennifer McRorie (Director and Curator at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery), and Jaimie Isaac (Curator and Artist, former Chief Curator at Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, former Curator of Contemporary and Indigenous Art at Winnipeg Art Gallery, and co-founder of Ephemerals Collective).

The selection committee found choosing a single curator to win this award was a massive challenge: so many are incredibly deserving of such recognition of their diligent and creative work in sharing contemporary art and diverse stories with the Canadian public. It was thus decided that an additional criterion would be added: who would most benefit from this show of support? Fortney operates within a publicly-funded institution with a local scope, with less visibility and less funds than many larger institutions. Yet, her curatorial practice facilitates deep community engagement with art and artifacts, and breaks down museological barriers. Additionally, her background in collections strengthens her curation. Fortney not only creates outstanding exhibitions; she brings art into communities beyond the art world canon.

WORDS FROM FORTNEY

“I am thankful to the Hnatyshyn Foundation for their recognition of my curatorial work. I delayed my career for many years for family reasons, and at times I thought about giving up on the idea of being a curator. Being selected for this award was a powerful sign that I am where I need to be and doing what I need to do. I acknowledge the entire team at the Museum of Vancouver for creating a supportive environment that prioritizes community engagement, redress and decolonization.”

This is the first suite of awards announced by The Hnatyshyn Foundation since the passing of our dear President, Gerda Hnatyshyn, on July 14th. Ray and Gerda Hnatyshyn’s legacies speak for themselves: In 20 years, the Hnatyshyn Foundation has supported Canadian artists with over $4.3 Million in awards, grants and residencies to emerging and mid-career artists, including:

• Over $1.5 Million to Indigenous artists;
• $100,000 to Canadian artists of Ukrainian heritage;
• $100,000 to Ukrainian artists impacted by the war; and
• Over$1.3 Million to undergraduate and graduate students in the performing arts.