Here are the nominees for the Large Year Award category of our 9th Annual EVA Awards! The Emerging Artist Award is sponsored by LAT49 Architects Inc.
Will Gill
Will Gill earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Mount Allison University in 1991, with a focus on sculpture. Gill has maintained a studio practice since graduation, evolving from solely sculptural exploration, to a practice that encompasses painting, sculpture, photography and video work. He was named to the long-list of the Sobey Art Award in the 2004 and 2006 competitions. The Sobey Art Award is Canada’s premiere award dedicated to contemporary artists under 40 years of age.
Recent career highlights include a commission for a large-scale water installation at Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (2012), participation in a two-person collateral exhibition at The 55th Venice Biennale (2013), a solo exhibition of paintings at The Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, British Columbia (Oct 2013), work on a $100,000 sculpture commission for a corporate building in downtown St John’s, Newfoundland (2013) and a design commission for a hand tufted carpet for The Canadian Consulate in London, England (2014).
He lives and works in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
Philippa Jones
Philippa Jones has been a St. John’s based artist since 2009. Prior to moving here Jones completed a BA in Fine Art and an MA in Interactive Art & Design at University College Falmouth. Jones’ diverse art practice has included and sometimes combines printmaking, painting, pen and ink, animation, art games and interactive installations. Central to Jones’ work is the exploration of constructed realities, active myth making and a celebration of wonder and the inquisitive mind. In 2013 Jones was favourably reviewed by Gloria Hickey in C Magazine for her solo show ‘MIRIAD’ at The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery. The drawing ‘Miriad Island’ that featured in the exhibition was subsequently purchased by the National Gallery of Canada. Jones is represented by the Christina Parker Gallery.
Peter Wilkins
Peter Wilkins (British, b. 1968) is a multimedia artist based in Clarke’s Beach, Newfoundland. Wilkins’ various bodies of work have been exhibited in public and private galleries across Canada and abroad, including The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery (St. Johns’, NL), Confederation Centre Art Gallery (Charlottetown, PEI), the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, B.C), and Canada House (London, England). His portrait and landscape artworks are held in public and private collections in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France and Greece. In 2009, Peter Wilkins was the inaugural artist-in-residence at Memorial University (St John’s, NL). In 2011, his works based on the architecture of Toronto were exhibited as a featured exhibition of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival (Toronto, ON). In 2013, Wilkins exhibited at the 55th Venice Biennale in the Collateral Event, About Turn: Newfoundland in Venice, Will Gill & Peter Wilkins.
Kailey Bryan is a multi-media artist currently living and working in St. John’s, NL. She received her BFA with Honours from York University and was the recipient of the E. J. Lightman Sculpture Award and the Louis Odette Award for Sculpture. Kailey is a founding member of Toronto based collective Tongue & Groove, who create participatory installations with recycled materials, increasingly exhibited in public spaces. Kailey’s individual practice centers on commercially manufactured materials and the body, exploring ways in which bodies and environments – physical, social, and psychological – mutually construct one another. Moving toward installation, video and performance, she hums and haws about power, agency, and accountability. She loves critical discussion, large bodies of water, and puns.
Malin Enström was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and has lived in Southern Europe, North Africa and North America. The main focus of Malin’s practice is photography, for which she won an Arts & Letters Award in 2013. She recently had her first solo show, One of of Nine, which documented the lives and experiences of breast cancer survivors in Newfoundland. In her day job, Malin is a crime analyst at the RNC and a PhD student at Memorial University. Malin is represented by the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art.
Mike Gough was born in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, in 1985. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in 2007 and in 2009 graduated from Memorial University with a Bachelor of Education. Gough went on to attend Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, England, and graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts in 2010. Shortly after, he was invited to exhibit with Witham Gallery in London for an exhibition featuring ten emerging artists from the top graduate schools in the UK, showing the future direction of British art. His work has appeared in group and solo exhibitions in Canada, the UK and France, and is part of both private and public collections in England and Canada. Gough was shortlisted for the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Emerging Artist of the Year in 2013. In December, 2013 Gough opened his first public gallery solo exhibition, titled Retrace, at The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery as part of the Elbow Room Residency Program. Gough is currently represented by Christina Parker Gallery.