Artist Rebecca Belmore outside her studio in Montreal, on Sept. 15, 2016. The Audain Foundation announced Tuesday that Belmore is the winner of the 2024 Audain Prize.Christinne Muschi/The Globe and Mail
Indigenous artist Rebecca Belmore is the winner of 2024 Audain Prize, the Audain Foundation announced Tuesday. The $100,000 prize, one of the richest arts awards in the country, is given annually to a senior British Columbia artist. Belmore, an Anishinaabekwe artist from the Lac Seul First Nation, north of Dryden, Ont., works in both Vancouver and Toronto.
Her multidisciplinary work, including installation, photography and performance, often addresses social and political issues surrounding Indigenous experience.
Last year, she created a large public art piece for the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver that featured giant orange and blue shirts made of tarpaulin and mounted on the building’s façade, in reference to the residential school survivors. Another of her most recognizable works is the photograph Fringe of 2008, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. It shows a partially naked woman lying on her side, facing away from the viewer. Her mid-section is covered with a white drape but her whole back is exposed to reveal a long diagonal scar slicing her almost in two. A red beaded fringe has been sewn on to it, echoing droplets of blood. Belmore’s 1991 work Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother is a giant wooden megaphone that has been installed outdoors in multiple Canadian locations, encouraging the public to speak to Mother Nature.
One of Rebecca Belmore's most recognizable works is Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother, a giant wooden megaphone that has been installed outdoors in multiple Canadian locations, encouraging the public to speak to Mother Nature.Sarah Ciurysek/Supplied
Her recent solo shows include Turbulent Water at the Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, in 2021, Reservoir at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, B.C., in 2019 and Facing the Monumental at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in 2018. In 2005, she represented Canada at the Venice Biennale.
Previous recipients of the Audain Prize, which was established in 2004, comprise a Who’s Who of B.C. artists including Ian Wallace, Stan Douglas, Takao Tanabe, Gathie Falk, Rodney Graham, Liz Magor, Jeff Wall and E.J. Hughes. Last year’s recipient was another Indigenous woman, Dana Claxton. The prize money was tripled in 2019 in a bid by philanthropist Michael Audain to bring more attention to B.C. artists.
The prize program also includes five $7,500 travel grants for B.C. students enrolled in university-level visual arts programs.