$1-million endowment transforms Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize into Canada’s largest award for emerging artists

Five shortlisted artists vying for the $25,000 prize announced

By Gail Johnson

Parumveer Walia, I Think You Think Too Much of Me, video still, 2024.

The Polygon Gallery presents the Philip B. Lind Biennial from November 9 to February 2

THE POLYGON GALLERY has announced a $1-million endowment for the Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize. The donation from the Lind family will increase the prize amount to $25,000, making it the country’s largest honour dedicated to supporting emerging visual artists working across the mediums of film, photography, or video.

The Lind Biennial, a collective exhibition of works from shortlisted artists, will also have an extended exhibition term made possible by the new endowment. The inaugural biennial show will be on view at The Polygon Gallery from November 9 to February 2.

The 2024 exhibiting finalists are: Mena El Shazly, a visual artist active in moving-image creation who has a master’s of fine arts degree from the School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU; Karice Mitchell, a photo-based artist with a master’s of fine arts from the University of Waterloo, who is concerned with how the Black female body has been historically and colonially exploited; Dion Smith-Dokkie, a gay mixed-race European-Indigenous man who has a master’s of fine arts from UBC; Parumveer Walia, an artist working in photography to examine queerness who is pursuing a bachelor in fine arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a minor in curatorial studies; and Casey Wei, an interdisciplinary artist pursuing her PhD in contemporary arts at SFU.

The finalists were selected from a longlist of more than 60 nominees by a panel of international jurors: Grace Deveney, who is the Art Institute of Chicago’s David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Associate Curator of Photography and Media; Brian Jungen, acclaimed contemporary artist; and Aram Moshayedi, writer, interim chief curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and current curator-in-residence at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony on January 23.

Karice Mitchell, longing to look, digital scan, 2024.

Also opening this November is Light Years: The Phil Lind Gift, an exhibition celebrating the donation of 37 works from his personal collection, at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Highlighting Lind’s interest in the Vancouver school of conceptual photography as well as social and political history, this exhibition and its accompanying publication will feature works by leading contemporary artists such as Stan Douglas, Antony Gormley, Rodney Graham, William Kentridge, John McCracken, Jeff Wall, and Ai Weiwei.

The Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize was established in 2015 with a donation from Rogers Communications Inc. in honour of Lind’s 40-year commitment to the communications industry. Artists are nominated by staff and faculty from established arts institutions and organizations from across the province. In addition to the prize money, the winner is provided with the opportunity to produce a project with The Polygon Gallery.

Lind was a pioneer in media and telecommunications, having helped build Rogers Communications Inc. An avid art collector, he had a particular love for contemporary photography and B.C. artists. He died on August 20, 2023, his 80th birthday. 

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