EMERGING ARTIST PRIZE - CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSEPH STAPLES

We are pleased to announce this year's winner of the CASV Emerging Artist's prize: JOSEPH STAPLES. Thank you to Access Gallery for hosting the exhibition this year, and to all the participating judges and submitting artists. The next iteration of the Contemporary Art Society's Emerging Artist Prize will take place in 2016. 

Emerging Artist Prize Chair - Rachel Rosenfeld Lafo and this year's Winner Joseph Staples.

CASV Emerging Artist Prize Exhibition installed at Access Gallery in Vancouver.

The winner of the second Contemporary Art Society Emerging Artist’s Prize is Joseph Staples, who was awarded $3000 at last night’s opening of the CASV Emerging Artist’s Prize Exhibition at Access Gallery. Jury members Grant Arnold, Vanessa Kwan, Sarah Macaulay, Kimberly Phillips, and Reid Shier selected Staples from a field of five finalists. The jurors recognized the quality of work of all five finalists, who were chosen from a field of 89 entries.

Staples’ work, along with that of the other four finalists, Derya Akay, Byron Peters, Laura Piasta, and Erdem Tasdelen,who each received a $500 award, is on view through May 31, 2012 at Access Gallery, 222 E. Georgia Street, Vancouver.http://accessgallery.ca/

Staples’ works with found images and photography through collage and printmaking. His project for this exhibition revolves around real estate, printmaking, failure and the unknown. The jurors noted how the work Staples submitted for the exhibition builds on his earlier work but represents an exciting new direction for the artist, demonstrating a more complex reference to the urban landscape. Staples has exhibited locally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Equinox Gallery, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Malaspina Printmakers and abroad.

This CASV Emerging Artist’s Prize was established in 2011 to encourage and support artists within the first five years of their careers, and is the only one of its kind in Vancouver selected through an open competition.

The prize is entirely funded by donations of CASV members and supporters. The CASV is a not-for-profit membership-based organization founded in 1977 that focuses on promoting an appreciation and understanding of Contemporary Art. Members enjoy studio visits, art trips, collection visits and lectures by prominent artists, critics, collectors, designers, architects and fine art professionals. For more information about CASV visit the website: http://www.casv.ca/.

CASV International Art Tour – Paris 2014

Jean Pierre Raynaud installation, photo by Holly

From June 3^rd to the 8^th, thirteen members of the Vancouver Contemporary Art Society (CASV) will be exploring the contemporary art scene of Paris.  Paris has a brilliant and dynamic contemporary art scene and it is my great pleasure to be able to share this opportunity with my friends and fellow members.  My focus is to demonstrate the excellent level of quality and innovation that is my experience with exhibitions in Paris though a diversity of forms including collection visits, private exhibition tours and studio visits.

Highlights of the tour will include a visit to the hippest and most experimental art institution in Paris, the Palais de Tokyo, with a ‘behind the scenes’ preview of their “in progress” art installation by Argentinian artist Eduardo Basualdo and a chance to talk with the artist and curator about it.  We will meet with the collectors associations Sam Art Projects and ADIAF (Association for the International Diffusion of French Art) who show tremendous support for the development and promotion of French artists through initiatives such as the Duchamp Prize.  The Duchamp Prize is France’s equivalent to the U.K.’s Turner Prize, initiated and supported by ADIAF.  At the recommendation of top art collectors, we will experience studio visits with definitive French artists Jean Pierre Raynaud, Jean-Michel Othoniel and Xavier Veilhan. 

Parisian galleries represent many of the world’s most important internationally renowned artists.  Emmanuel Perrotin, for example, launched the career of art superstar Takashi Murakami, being the first to exhibit Murakami’s work outside of Japan.  Perrotin, who will be one of our hosts, was named by British daily newspaper, the Guardian, “One of the most powerful people in the art world.”  He has successfully placed two of his artists in collaboration with the Palace Versailles where their work was installed throughout the palace grounds.  The CASV is fortunate to be visiting the studio of two of Perrotin’s artists, including Xavier Veilhan who is one of very few contemporary artists to receive the very rare privilege of exhibiting at Chateau Versailles.  We are also most fortunate to be invited by Kamel Mennour to experience his solo exhibition of Anish Kapoor, one of the world’s most important artists of the moment. 

Highlights of private and public contemporary art collections include a trip to the Champagne region for the “Pommery Experience” curated by the Director of FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Florence Derieux. The collection has been installed in the champagne cellars or caves, which are actually limestone and chalk pits from the 1800’s.  This fusion of old and new is something that is so definitive of French contemporary art and therefore an integral part of our tour.

The Pommery Experience reveals another definitive factor of the French art world – corporate sponsorship.  French luxury brands like YSL, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and liquor distributors like Pommery, Ricard and many others, have been integral in supporting the contemporary arts, often through project and event sponsorship, corporate collections, and collaborations.  LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) has invited the CASV to join them for cocktails in their private exhibition space, Espace Culturel, overlooking the Champs Elysees, while hearing about their current exhibition by L.A. artist and feminist, Andrea Bowers.

I am thrilled to share these and other unique experiences of the brilliant art world of Paris with members of the CASV!

- Holly Marie Armishaw

Lunar Asparagus by Patrick Laroche

The tour has been organized by the volunteer efforts of Holly Marie Armishaw who will also lead the tour.  Armishaw is a contemporary, Vancouver-based artist, and serves on the CASV Board of Directors.  www.hollyarmishaw.com

The CASV gratefully acknowledge support from the following: