$100,000 Audain Prize for Visual Art awarded to Stan Douglas

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Before a packed ballroom at the Vancouver Club on Monday evening, the Audain Prize was awarded to photographic artist, Stan Douglas. Mr. Douglas is one British Columbia’s most distinguished artists, and the first to be awarded the recently increased $100,000 cash prize (from $30,000).

“It is a great honour to be included with this group of other B.C. artists like Rodney Graham and the late Fred Herzog who have won the Audain Prize,” says Stan Douglas.

Stan Douglas is one of Canada’s most widely celebrated and internationally important contemporary artists. Best known for his photography, film and video installations, his art often examines the complexities of social reality and history.

The Audain Prize is now one of the big three annual Canadian arts awards to issue the winning recipient a six-figure cash prize. The Giller Prize (celebrating excellence in Canadian fiction) and the Sobey Art Award (for a contemporary Canadian artist, age 40 and under) are in this rare company.

“We increased the value of the Audain Prize award because we want our leading artists to become better known. After all, British Columbia has some wonderful visual artists, and many are not as widely recognized as they should be,” says Michael Audain. “We have some of the world’s best contemporary artists, yet is the average man or woman in B.C. aware of international artists like Jeff Wall or Stan Douglas?”

In addition to the Audain Prize winner, the Audain Foundation announced the funding of five $7,500 travel awards for students in university-level visual arts programs in the province.

The recipients were selected by the faculty of each of the respective universities. These grants were awarded to:

Rachel Warwick – Simon Fraser University
Lindsay Kirker – University of British Columbia Okanagan
Rosamunde Bordo  - University of British Columbia
Danielle Proteau -  University of Victoria
Malina Sintnicolaas – Emily Carr University of Art and Design

“The Audain Art Museum is delighted that this year we were responsible for managing this important art award as our museum specializes in art by British Columbia artists. In fact, our Whistler museum is unique in this respect,” says Director & Chief Curator Dr. Curtis Collins.

Past Audain Prize recipients include: Ann Kipling, Edward J. Hughes, Eric Metcalfe, Gordon Smith, Jeff Wall, Liz Magor, Robert Davidson, Rodney Graham, Marian Penner Bancroft, Takao Tanabe, Gathie Falk, Fred Herzog, Michael Morris, Paul Wong, Carole Itter and Susan Point.

Audain Foundation Background
Established in 1997 to support the visual arts mainly in British Columbia, the Foundation has made over $120 milion in grants. More recently, the Foundation has expanded its scope to include wildlife conservation, with a special emphasis on grizzly bears.

Audain Art Museum Background
Located on Blackcomb Way acjacent to Whistler Village. Opened in 2016, the Museum houses a large portion of the art collection that Michael Audain and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa amassed over the past 40 years.  Their world-class Northwest Coast art collection is on permanent display, plus there are galleries for special exhibitions of Canadian and international art.

For media enquiries -- please contact:

PEAK COMMUNICATORS  (media relations for the Audain Prize)
Ross Sullivan / Jess Verheyden
C: 604-802-7139   /  O: 604-689-5559
ross@peakco.com / jess@peakco.com

Stan Douglas – Background

Born in 1960 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Stan Douglas graduated from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design, now the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, in 1982. The following year, he was included in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s survey Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931 – 1983.

In the 1990s, Stan Douglas rose to international prominence. He was one of the first artists to be represented by New York Gallery, David Zwirner, where he had his debut American exhibition in 1993. In addition to numerous solo exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide, including the Württembergische Kunstverein and Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany, the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover, and the Serpentine Gallery in London, Stan Douglas was also selected for Documentas IX, X and XI and the Venice Biennales in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2008.

In addition to the 2019 Audain Prize for the Visual Arts, Stan Douglas has received a number of awards for his art. He was awarded the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Art Award in 2007, the Bell Award in Video Art in 2008, the Infinity Award for Art form the International Center of Photography in 2012, the Scotia Bank Photography Award in 2013, and the prestigious Hasselblad Award in 2016.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2c3f97d9-ab8d-4abf-b7a9-70a8ba943939