National Juried Competition awarded by The Arts & Letters Club of Toronto.
These words from The Honourable Chief Justice Suzanne Duncan at the Award Ceremony telecast Thursday, December 17, 2020 from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
"This piece embodies the concept of diversity within unity so beautifully. Three of the same, yet each different. The small seed as a life force; holding within it great transformative potential, the “blueprint for a life”(quote from the artist, Alex Bulzan); each life unique but connected by common origins- the elements of earth, water, sunlight. Seeds as living things necessary for our longer term survival, but requiring us to be guardians, not destroyers, of our environment to allow them to grow and thrive. The strength of the life force symbolized by the red, black and white."
Partial section of ceremony (3 minutes) telecast from Whitehorse, Yukon.
Click here for full Ceremony (20 minutes) YouTube /
BACKGROUND
N3XT CANADA offers artists an opportunity to participate in a unique experience that unites the visual arts from all across Canada. N3XT is the third installment of a juried art competition that was founded in 2016 to promote emerging visual artists. It has evolved in to a national competition.
Thanks to the generous support of benefactors and sponsors, it offers significant prizes to the top artists. Ambassadors have been selected to champion N3XT in different regions of Canada. Their mission is to liaise with local arts communities to promote N3XT and encourage artists to explore new and innovative ways of expressing unity in their art.
A total of 114 works of art exploring the concept of Canadian unity were received, which have been narrowed down by the jurors to the top 10 finalists. The winners will be announced on December 17, 2020. N3xt runs until January 18, 2020, at St. George’s Hall in Toronto.
THE N3XT JURY
N3XT jury is comprised of leading Canadian artists, critics, and gallerists.
Maggie Broda
Maggie Broda is a Toronto-based freelance visual artist, writer, and educator. She holds a BFA from the Ontario College of Art, Associate of OCA, and Member of OCT. She serves on the OCAD University Board of Governors, President OCADU Alumni Association, and currently holds the position of President of the Women's Art Association of Canada; Interviewer/writer/artist of the Elaine Fleck Contemporary Art Catalogue; Muskoka Arts and Craft Member; and Executive Member at John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto. Broda is also an active studio artist. Created in acrylic with brush and palette knife, her paintings express passion and style. The texture and movement capture the poetic spirituality that is inherent in art. Her work is in private collections throughout Canada, the US, and the UK.
Moira Cowan
Moira Cowan holds a both a BA and MA in Fine Art History from the University of Toronto as well as an MBA in Strategy and Business Design from the Rotman School of Management. Cowan is currently Director at Sutton in New York, NY, a cultural communications company that promotes creativity across the globe. She is an art market specialist with unique expertise that encompasses a broad and rich knowledge of fine art. Prior to her position at Sutton, Cowan was Vice President & Business Director of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art in New York.
Nadine Estrada-Karachi
Nadine Estrada-Karachi holds a BA Majoring in Sociology with a Minor in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Toronto. Since moving to Mexico City in 1996, she has served as a Board Member of Patrons of Contemporary Art in Mexico. In 2016, she was appointed the Honorary Consul for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Mexico. Estrada-Karachi has organized fundraising programs for numerous foundations in Mexico, including projects designed to preserve museums, schools, and indigenous agricultural practices.
Jacek Malec
Jacelk Malec is a leading art historian, critic, lecturer, and curator of many exhibitions relating to international and Canadian contemporary visual/new media arts, architecture, and design. After graduating in Art History, Museology and Curatorial Studies from the University of Wroclaw, Malec moved to Calgary, Alberta where he became Chief Curator of the Aerospace Museum. He was later named as Director/Curator at the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts in Calgary which he helped transition into the Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary in 2011. Malec co-founded the Art Forum Gallery in Calgary in 2013, an alternative public art gallery, and is currently Executive Director/Chief Curator of Harcourt House Artist Run Centre in Edmonton.
Christina Parker
Christina Parker is owner of the Christina Parker Gallery which overlooks the Narrows in downtown St. John’s, Newfoundland. Parker represents emerging and established visual artists who work in a wide variety of mediums including painting, photography, silkscreen & intaglio printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, and video. The Christina Parker Gallery provides an expansive environment for monthly exhibitions by notable gallery artists who include Ned Pratt, Will Gill, Kym Greeley, Scott Goudie, Diana Dabinett, and many others.
Tom Smart
Tom Smart is an award-winning author of biographies, catalogues, and books on prominent Canadian artists including painters Christopher Pratt, Jack Chambers, Alex Colville, and Mary Pratt; sculptor John Hooper; and graphic novelists Seth and George A. Walker. Currently the Executive Director and CEO of Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Smart has worked in art galleries and museums across Canada and the United States, among them the Frick in Pittsburgh, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Vaughan, Ontario, where he was Executive Director from 2006 to 2010. Smart was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Pittsburgh’s Mellon University.
Richard York
Richard York, woodcut artist and printmaker, has works in many private, public, and corporate collections throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Represented by the Mira Godard Gallery since 2016, his small-edition reduction woodcuts and linocuts combine abstraction, texture, and colour to reflect his interest in the uneasy and often tense boundaries between natural and man-made landscapes. Born in Wisconsin in 1955 and raised in California, an early interest in woodcuts led York to begin printing as a teenager. In 2009, he moved to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, opened Studio 2901, and became a Canadian citizen.