Get ready for the Aimia | AGO Photography Prize
IMAGES (Top Left, clockwise ): (1) Hank Willis Thomas, The Law of the Land is Our Demand, 2017. Screenprint on retroreflective vinyl. 152.4 x 48 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. (2) Liz Johnson Artur, Untitled, 1986 to 2010, Black Balloon Archive, Courtesy of the artist. (3) Taisuke Koyama, Untitled (MELTING RAINBOWS 103), 2010 Archival Pigment Print, 111 x 74 cm / 60 x 40 cm, Courtesy of the artist. (4) Raymond Boisjoly, (What Comes After) What Came Before (detail), 2015. Solvent-based inkjet print on vinyl. 132 x 191 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver.
The Aimia | AGO Photography Prize exhibition is opening on September 6, and we couldn’t be more excited about the incredible photographic works about to be displayed on Level 5 of the AGO’s Contemporary Tower.
Mark your calendars and join artists Liz Johnson Artur, Raymond Boisjoly, Taisuke Koyama and Hank Willis Thomas in conversation with exhibition curator Sophie Hackett on the evening of September 6. Following the talk, there will be a public reception in Walker Court to celebrate the exhibition’s opening.
Remember: this is the prize where your vote matters. Choose the artist whose work speaks to you and cast your vote in-gallery starting September 6, and online at the Prize website starting September 13. For updates, make sure to follow us on our Facebook page and @AimiaAGOPrize on Twitter.
Before the artists and their work arrive, why not learn more about them?
Liz Johnson Artur is a Russian-Ghanaian photographer based in London. For the last 28 years, she has been working on a photographic representation of people of African descent, capturing compelling nuances of blackness, highlighting family, love and friendships.
Raymond Boisjoly is an Indigenous artist of Haida and Québécois descent who lives and works in Vancouver. He has exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally and his work investigates the ways images, objects, materials and language continue to define Indigenous art and artists, with particular attention to colonial contexts.
Taisuke Koyama is a Japanese artist who explores the possibility of image making in the digital age. His abstract photographs and moving images employ experimental production methods to investigate the relationship between organic processes and phenomena and the technologies that facilitate their visual capture.
Hank Willis Thomas is a multidisciplinary contemporary African-American visual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history and popular culture. He often incorporates recognizable icons into his work, many from well-known advertising and branding campaigns.
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