Quest Art's 2018 TD Wealth - Thor Wealth Management Group Art Prize

100 word Artist Statement: The inspiration for my paintings flows from moments in everyday life. These snapshots might be expressed in a figurative painting, a landscape or a still life. My love of painting has led me to take classes in both Germany and Canada. Acrylic on watercolour paper and mylar, has emerged as my artistic medium in my latest series of figurative paintings and still lifes. A few years ago, a rescued puppy became the latest family addition. The new life experiences as a “dog parent” have sparked many a painting including a beloved black mutt.

Dimensions: 94.4 x 61 x 4

100 word Artist Statement: I spent 6 weeks at the Banff Centre, with visits to the Athabasca Oil Sands and other sites of our industrial economy. I was deeply moved by the conjunction of the mountains – with all the meanings that we ascribe to them – and our ambitions for fossil fuels. I have developed a visual language of intricately painted images that are spliced and flayed, hanging off the walls and ceiling. This energy of life, and violent re-ordering, reflects both the vitality and risk of our changing global culture. It provokes the awareness that we need to re-imagine and re-order how we live.

Dimensions: 152 x 115 x 12

100 word Artist Statement: Meera Sethi is a Canadian visual artist whose practice encompasses a range of mediums to pose questions about the relationship between migration, diaspora, hybridity and belonging. Her work foregrounds contemporary histories on the edges of representation, especially queer, diasporic and post-colonial moments. Fashion and the politics of dress is a persistent theme. Recent work includes: “Begum”, mixed media paintings that explore the notion of "excess" in queer femme fashion; “Upping the Aunty”, paintings on canvas that place the figure of the “Aunty” at the centre of fashion; and “Unstitched”, a single sari that travels around the world.

Dimensions: 91 x 152 x 4

100 word Artist Statement: Cezanne said if it doesn't start and end with an emotion its nothing. Hawthorne commented that its our responsibility to say something beautiful about the ordinary. Some where in those thoughts is a place where colour and light and value create an engaging space where varying forms of contrast will hold you in its embrace for a while. This is at the root of every brush stroke I make.

Dimensions: 88 x 132 x 4.4

100 word Artist Statement: The conceit of my practice involves taking a broad premise (such as a farm, a dog racing track, a traffic jam etc) and painting it in as straightforward manner as possible without using any kind of outside image reference. My intention is to use whatever is lacking in my perception or ability as a means of distortion. I believe this distorted translation between premise and execution behaves as an inverted analogy for the frays and flaws that colour our experience of existence but are invisible because of their omnipresence in our perception.

Dimensions: 91.44 x 121.92 x 3.81

100 word Artist Statement: Much of my work has centred on the realm in which human and natural worlds meet - both in harmony and in opposition. More recently, I have begun making paintings within the uniquely beautiful (but essentially useless) packaging of Apple products. I see these paintings as a comment on the ubiquitousness of consumer packaging of all kinds; as an acknowledgement that the packaging of many products is part of the appeal of consuming the products themselves; and that our interaction with the world around us has been drastically altered by recent technological achievements.

Dimensions: 40 x 30 x 5

100 word Artist Statement: Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart is a Toronto-based artist working in photography. Her work explores common objects, analyzing how context and repetition can influence their meaning. Analyzing modern conventions of utility and design, her work considers what role an object is designed to play in a consumer’s personal narrative. Her interest lies in bringing awareness to ways in which objects are weaved into the stories we tell about our lives and our identities. In recent works, Sage has chosen waste objects which are both ubiquitous and have a negative impact on the environment. The photographs have mostly been set in Toronto.

Dimensions: 30 x 24 x 1.5

100 word Artist Statement: My website is bettybishop.ca but I am afraid it is rather out of date (2 years out of date!). I am in the process of updating which will be done before August 24/18. Thank you for considering my work. I hope you like it. It was a lot of fun painting for me.

Dimensions: 60.95 x 76.25 x 2.54

100 word Artist Statement: This photo series depicts the story of three individuals in a future devoid of racial oppression. In this future, three black youths have been able to achieve high socioeconomic status, and everything from the clothes they wear, to the location they’re in reiterates this. There are three models to take advantage of asymmetry as a source of chaos for the viewer. Certain poses hint to a polyamorous relationship, symbolizing their ability to progress beyond possessive relationships. There is only one female model as she is the nucleus of said relationship. In this future, women are no longer seen as lesser.

Dimensions: 157.48 x 105.41 x 3.81

100 word Artist Statement: Executed as a hybrid of sculpture and painting, my structures explore the distance between presumption and certainty. Presented as a dimensional arrangement on a flat plane, it demonstrates an observers inability to see beyond the face put forth by a subject. When viewed in this way, the singular vantage point offers no allowance for full comprehension of an individual's nature. The aesthetic of my subject matter is largely influenced by the innocence of primitive children's toys, free of prejudice, and reflective of unsullied curiosity.

Dimensions: 172 x 198 x 4

100 word Artist Statement: I consider myself an alternative nature artist. I like to portray the ignored and overlooked flora/fauna of the natural world. I like to put them in unusual and thought provoking situations to draw the viewer in and then question the subject portrayed. I am constantly asked how did I imagine these life forms etc. I inform the viewer that they actually exist and give them a brief history of the subject. The wonderment and fascination is my reward. the interaction between all living things is fundamental to our existence.

Dimensions: 24 x 32 x 1

100 word Artist Statement: To highlight the beauty of traditional weaving, sewing and crochet techniques once valued and largely practised by women, subsequently replaced or lost to automation. Materials of an industrial nature are repurposed into art, therefore combing techniques lost to technology and repurposing materials discarded by technology - adding new life purpose and value as contemporary art.

Dimensions: 50 x 40 x 20

100 word Artist Statement: My current work is an ongoing investigation of wool, a renewable resource juxtaposed with the permanence of man-made materials. By combining elements such as felted wool, porcelain and discarded objects, I create assemblages to explore the excesses of consumerism, accumulation of waste and the role cultural debris plays as an inherent part of the environment. My sculptures present an alternate reality of observations made while hiking in woodlands where I encounter discarded objects with a permanent presence in the environment.

Dimensions: 18 x 15 x 28