In case you haven't heard the
exciting news, our very own Jason Holley has made the semi-finals in Toronto as
part of the RBC Emerging Artist competition for the most popular ceramic artist
in Canada!
Presented by the Gardiner Museum,
the 2nd Annual RBC Emerging Artist People’s Choice Award recognizes the artist
whose work receives the most votes from the participating public with a $10,000
cash prize. This year’s nominees are Jason Holley (Newfoundland), Sarah
Lawless (British Columbia), Janet MacPherson (Ontario), Julie
Moon
(Ontario), and Brendan Tang (British Columbia). See the artists’ work
on view at the Gardiner and cast your vote from September 4 – 30 at the exhibition
or online at gardinermuseum.com.
By the way, it's only one vote per person.
NOTE: Voting will close September
30th although the artists' work will remain on view until October 7.
Jason faces some stiff competition from his fellow ceramic artists. Sarah Lawless makes lovely organic
forms and like Jason she also evokes place - in her case the beautiful B.C.
coast- in her video. Janet
MacPherson, Julie Moon and Brendan Tang take a very different approach in their
videos. It more of what I call the
"talking head" style and by that I mean it is where they just look at
the camera and without any distracting visuals tell you about their piece in
the competition. All the works are
currently on view at the Gardiner Museum, which is across the street from the
Royal Ontario Museum in case you are in TO, or the big onion as I
affectionately call it. (NY being
the big apple.) I was struck that
Brendan Tang was the only competitor with the balls to actually ask the viewers
to vote for him. Frankly, I was
not surprised. I said to myself,
"no wonder you've been covered in Canadian Art already." Frankly, Tang is lucky his work
photographs so well. I know when
I've seen it "in the flesh" I was disappointed by how clunky it
looked. But that's just my not-so-humble
opinion.
Check out Jason's video, on the Gardiner/RBC website and let me know which approach you prefer.
I was really intrigued by Jason's piece in the competition as it
incorporates colour for what I believe is the first time. His piece is a typical coil composition
but this time the broken coils that are spilling out of its core are blood
red. My first reaction when I saw
the image was, "this is darker than the new Batman movie". It represents a new level of
vulnerability, of rawness from Jason Holley and I'd like to applaud his
bravery.
Our lad wearing one of his very own signature chainmaille motif T-shirts.
I have put a "Vote Jason Holley" tag line on my e-mail
messages today with a link to the Gardiner's competition website. I urge you to do the same. Come on people, let's kick some butt
and help our home-boy win that $10,000 prize.
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