The mission of the Sylvie and Simon Blais Foundation is to promote contemporary culture by developing programs that will bring new artistic practices to the attention of the general public.

The Sylvie and Simon Blais Foundation is pleased to announce the name of the first recipient of the 2010 Sylvie and Simon Blais Award for Emerging Visual Artists. Stéphane Dionne, currently at work on an MFA at Université du Québec à Montréal, has the honour of receiving this award. The Foundation would also like to salute Martin Chagnon (UQÀM), Francis Montillaud (UQÀM) and Lenka Novakova (Concordia University), who were among the four finalists for the award. We were very happy with the high quality of the twenty-one applications received, which made the jury’s final decision an extremely difficult one.

Stéphane Dionne’s video paintings incorporate static shots of movement. The artist describes his approach in these terms: “The body becomes an object divested of any sonic expression. The only language giving an indication of a particular individual’s personality is that provided by the movement of the body within a confined space. In this way the video is a subjective interpretation and expression of its very subject. Through fiction, I construct a critical look at what drives individuals to come into contact with others and, at the same time, become estranged from them.”

The members of the jury, Gilles Daigneault, curator, art critic and art historian, Anne-Marie Ninacs, art historian and curator, Daniel Limoges, Managing Director at BMO Nesbitt Burns and collector, Michel Goulet, sculptor and Simon Blais, met to select the recipient of the award on April 29. An exhibition of works by Stéphane Dionne will be held at Galerie Simon Blais from August 14 to September 11 of this year.

Simon Blais
President, Sylvie and Simon Blais Foundation