News: Marco Antonio Cruz Wins $50,000 Grange Prize
Marco Antonio Cruz Juan Esteban Toribio Metal, National School for the Blind, Mexico City 2003 Courtesy of the artist © 2009 Marco Antonio Cruz
With the 13th annual CONTACT photography festival closing this week and public debates about the future of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography ongoing, it seems timely that this Tuesday marked the announcement of the winner of the Grange Prize, an annual contemporary photography award sponsored by Aeroplan and the Art Gallery of Ontario aimed at showcasing “the best in Canadian and international photography.”
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Marco Antonio Cruz Andrea Islas García, farmer, blind from cataracts, Buenavista Community, Municipality of Otumba, State of Mexico 1998 Courtesy of the artist © 2009 Marco Antonio Cruz |
The $50,000 prize was awarded this year to photojournalist Marco Antonio Cruz for his haunting series of black and white images of the blind in Mexico City. The decision was made by the public through an online voting system, with 20,593 votes cast this year by viewers in Canada, Mexico, the United States, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Peru and China. Each year, a curatorial committee considers candidates from Canada and one other country for the prize. This year’s nominees also included Federico Gama from Mexico City, Lynne Cohen from Montreal and Jin-me Yoon from Vancouver. Next year, the prize will focus on photographers from France.
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Lynne Cohen Untitled 2003 Courtesy of Olga Korper Gallery © 2009 Lynne Cohen |
At the awards ceremony at the AGO, Cruz spoke through a translator about his hopes for a continuing creative exchange between Canada and Mexico and dedicated his prize to the blind subjects he documented. A key component to the Grange Prize process is a series of artist residencies between the two countries, and this year AGO director Matthew Teitelbaum announced that the runners-up will each receive $5,000 to assist with producing and exhibiting the projects they created while on exchange. Cohen’s residency in Cancun, for instance, explored the public and private spaces of a tourist destination, while Yoon will spend a week in Mexico City producing video works about historically charged sites in the area.
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Federico Gama Force of Gravity 2008 Courtesy of the artist © 2009 Federico Gama |
An exhibition of images by the four finalists continues at the AGO through June 26. The work of the 2008 Grange Prize winner, Winnipeg’s Sarah Anne Johnson, will also be featured at the gallery this fall. (317 Dundas St W, Toronto ON)
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Jin-me Yoon As It Is Becoming (Seoul, Korea) 2008 Video still Courtesy of Catriona Jeffries Gallery Vancouver © 2009 Jin-me Yoon |
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