Albertan artist Adrian Stimson wins a 2018 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts

In recognition of his works that feature found objects, especially mink pelts or buffalo hides, the visual artist from Alberta received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

His material-based works evoke his residential-school experience

Adrian Stimson’s works feature remnants of the actual residential school he was sent to. They are based on a very raw material reality, according to Wanda Nanibush, Curator of Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, adding that “it is by maintaining the trauma of colonization and exploring both the sacred and the sacrilegious that Stimson sets himself apart as a radical agent of change.”  

An award that includes a $25,000 prize

The Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts, created in 1999 by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Governor General at that time, constitute national recognition of remarkable careers in these fields. Each winner receives a medallion and a prize of $25,000.