Several accomplished and familiar photographers are included in our exhibition of Martin Lipman’s portraits of Governor General’s award winners. Arnaud Maggs won a Visual and Media Arts award in 2006. Lynne Cohen, Gabor Szilasi and Geoffrey James are also included.
Stop in to see them all on Friday at 6 pm.
Portraits of Governor General’s Award Winners in Visual and Media Arts @ SPAO
Shirley Thomson had a profound impact on the visual arts in Canada and internationally. An accomplished historian and academic, Thomson was director of the McCord Museum and the National Gallery of Canada, Secretary General for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Thomson was a warm and attentive individual who offered her full attention generously. Among her many awards and recognitions is a 2007 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.
Martin Lipman’s portrait of Thomson will be on view at SPAO, this Friday, June 14th. Join us for a vernissage, 6-9 pm
A Sight Better is a collection of portraits of GG award winners by Martin Lipman. Who is this fellow?
He’ll be giving an artist talk at SPAO@Exposure Gallery on June 20th at 6:30 pm, surrounded by a selection of his works. Stop in and say hi then (details on our event page). In the mean time, here’s a little bio:
Martin Lipman has worked as a professional photographer for over 20 years, specializing in culture, science and natural history. He has been recognized for his commercial and editorial photography, and for his work in the Arctic. While travelling with the Canadian Museum of Nature research teams Lipman was present when paleobiologist Dr. Natalia Rybczynski found fossilized mammal bones for a walking seal and for a High Arctic camel.
Lipman has photographed Governor General Award laureates for the Canada Council for the Arts since 2005. The result is an important and striking visual record of Winners in Visual and Media Arts.
Lipman is a graduate of Ryerson University (Bachelor of Applied Arts in Photography) and holds an MA in Journalism from Indiana University. He is a former instructor and academic advisor at the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa, and he continues to support the school in many ways.
Awards include the Black Book 100, multiple Applied Arts Photography and Design awards, and awards in Communication Arts and the Information Design Workbook. His Arctic field photography has been featured on television and online media outlets including Radio Canada’s Déscouvertes, Canadian Geographic, Agence-France Presse and the BBC. It has also been featured in a number of books about climate change, the Arctic and paleontology.
His work with the Canada Council for the Arts is featured in numerous print and on-line publications nationally and internationally.
A Sight Better: Governor General’s Award Winners in Visual and Media Arts: Portraits by Martin Lipman
A Sight Better: Governor General’s Award Winners in Visual and Media Arts, 2005-2013. Portraits by Martin Lipman
A Sight Better: Governor General’s Award Winners in Visual and Media Arts, 2005-2013. Portraits by Martin Lipman opens June 14th at SPAO’s Redwall Gallery. A complimentary exhibition opens June 17th at Exposure Gallery.
This collection of portraits represents Lipman’s ongoing work documenting Canada’s most senior artists. For the last nine years Lipman photographed Governor General Award laureates for the Canada Council for the Arts. The result is an important and striking visual record of Winners in Visual and Media Arts.
Michael Tardioli, SPAO’s Creative Director has followed Lipman’s work with the Canada Council from the beginning.
“Martin Lipman’s portraits of Governor General’s Award Winners in Visual and Media Arts are wonderfully crafted and executed photographs. Lipman is one of the top portraitists of our time. His sensitivity to individual artists has produced a powerful set of editorial and environmental images. These portraits are important archival records of individual achievement in the arts. They are also compelling pictures, unique in their response to given contexts. It is a pleasure to be able to celebrate both the artist and their image.”
Included are portraits of Rebecca Bellmore, Lynne Cohen, Anraud Maggs, Shirley Thompson, and many more.
A Sight Better will open with a vernissage at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa’s in house Redwal Gallery on June 14th, from 6pm – 9pm. A complimentary set of portraits will be on view at Exposure Gallery from June 17th. A Sigh Better closes on July 16, 2013.
Artist Talk:
Join us for an artist talk at Exposure Gallery on Thursday June 20th at 6:30 pm. Martin Lipman will discuss his experiences travelling around Canada and photographing some of this country’s most influential artists.
Supporting Institutions:
Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts The Awards, funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, are in their 14th year and recognize distinguished career achievements in the visual and media arts by Canadian artists, as well as outstanding contributions through voluntarism, philanthropy, board governance, community outreach or professional activities. The Award now incorporates the Saidye Bronfman Award, which recognizes excellence in fine crafts.
Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s national arts funder. Its grants and payments to artists and arts organizations benefit Canadians by ensuring a vibrant arts sector in Canada. Its awards celebrate creativity by recognizing exceptional Canadians in the arts, humanities and sciences.
The School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa
The School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO) is an independent, not-for-profit photography school. Established in 2005, SPAO’s mandate is to provide an intensive and collaborative experience in photographic arts education, and to advance and enrich the photographic and visual culture of Ottawa and beyond. SPAO draws on traditional and contemporary photographic processes and ideas to advance photographic innovation, visual literacy and personal vision.
Media contacts:
Randy Innes, Assistant Director, School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa
613.562.3824, randy.innes@spao.ca
Martin Lipman , photographer
613.255.3175, lipman1@mac.com
Here’s a great short video from our pals over at Guerilla Magazine, http://www.getguerilla.com. Guerilla will be celebrating its 10 year anniversary this coming year and they are looking for support and collaboration to meet their anniversary goals. Have a watch, spot the photography school, and drop them a line. Guerilla is a great publication that has supported and advanced Ottawa’s art scene for ten years!
Some great news from SPAO Alum Saman Deilamani - a piece from a fantastic series he produced at SPAO has been included in the American Photography annual book for 2013. Well done Saman!
Saman’s work can be seen here: twoeyeballsandalens.tumblr.com
OBJECT MATTER: PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS BY PENMAN, SMITH AND WALKER
SPAO @ Chinatown Remixed
Curated by Randy Innes
May 18-June 18 2013
Grand Opening and Vernissage May 18, 1:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: Bubblicity Tea Shop, 730 Somerset St W (at Booth)
OBJECT MATTER features the work of three graduates of the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa. The photographs included here share a common thread: these works invite the viewer to consider the material conditions of photography as a process and as an object. Penman’s work explores the relationship between nature, chemistry, and photography. Smith’s approach tears at the surface of the photographic medium and explores instant photographic processes. Walker uses an elaborate nineteenth-century wet-plate negative process that remains visible in the final image. OBJECT MATTER draws attention to the photograph as a material object, and to the processes and procedures involved in producing photographic objects.
Exhibition No. 8 has come to a close.
What a year it has been for both the school as an entity and the students’ personal endeavours.
The exhibition saw a wonderful turnout not only for the vernissage, but throughout the week for the gallery hours, and the scheduled artist talks. For many of the students, this was the first time that they had an opportunity to give a “talk” about their work and everyone did a fantastic job.
The final Friday night, the gallery was closed to the public, and family assembled for the graduation and awards ceremony.
The school receives a great amount of help from the arts community in Ottawa for this event, and we would just like to take a minute to thank all the contributors very much:
-Jim des Rivieres and Katherine Finter
-Wallacks
-Henry’s
-Lawrence Cook
-Patrick Gordon
-Patrick Turner and the Spao Alumni
-All the family and friends that support the students through difficult times
Posted above are the images of the outgoing Second and Third years (minus one or two faces) and the recipients of some of the awards.
The awards were:
First years:
-Michael Wozniak - Award of Visual Merit
-Sarah Ruest - Award of Visual Merit
-David Wilson - Luna Bursary for Second Year studies
Second Years:
-Zachary Pantalone: Best use of Film Award
-Angela Walker: Marc Geurtin Craftsmanship Award, and the Award of Visual Merit, Exhibition: Level 2
-Matthew Merle Bula: Directors’ Award, Award of Visual Merit, Exhibition: Level 2, and the Lux Lighting Award
-Blair Smith: Alumni Award
-Sarah Anderson: The Sphinx Bursary for Third Year studies.
The school year has now finished. The halls echo with the stillness of summer and the occasional rattle of some lone student developing a roll of film in some quiet back room.
For many, it is time for hammocks, margaritas, and the occasional siesta. For the classmates that I have come to work and play so closely with, this is not necessarily the case.
At some point, there has been a fundamental shift that has occurred over these past two years. A certain lifestyle has been sacrificed in the pursuit of one’s passion.
Thus, the SPAO machine chugs on. Interviews have already begun for next year’s fresh batch and the students who will not be returning to study look onwards. I wonder what the future holds.
The vernissage for Exhibition No. 8 was a roaring success with just shy of 700 people passing through our doors.
It was a truly humbling experience to experience such a turnout of quality individuals to come and see their work.
The show is not over yet!
The works will be up until this Friday April 26 2013 and tomorrow (Tuesday the 23rd) there will be some more artist talks from 1-3pm - which I hope you will be able to attend.
If you didn’t get a chance to view the work at the vernissage, please make sure you come back, we are open from 10am-5pm all week long and some of the artists are in the studio during those times.
Thank you for contributing to the success of our exhibition and your continuing support of SPAO.
Blair Smith’s innovative interventions into photographic emulsions. Exhibition No. 8 opens in just over 24 hrs at SPAO!
