Montrealer Evergon, a bad boy in Canadian photography, received one of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts on Tuesday.
Albert born artist Jay Lunt gets the nation’s biggest stamp of approval after 50 years of creating. This photography pioneer was one of the first to capture LGBTQ themes in images.
“Very early on, I felt that the photos were fictions. And a big part of my job is to tell stories or fiction,” he told the Canada Council for the Arts before receiving his prize.
In particular, we owe him huge color Polaroids for years exploring the identities, homosexuality and life of “adults who play”, in his own words. Nude portraits and self-portraits constitute a good part of his work. “People believed it. From the start of the project, there were 33 people who wanted to take off their clothes and become a Rambo or a Rambette,” explains the artist.
The National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec is currently exhibiting his works in a retrospective. Postmodernity, art of plastic and identity collage, queer and trans identities, cross-dressing… This gallery retraces the milestones of his award-winning avant-garde art.
Other recipients of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts include Germaine Koh, Tim Whiten, Shannon Walsh, Nettie Wild and the FASTWÜRMS collective.
David Garneau from Regina, Saskatchewan won the Outstanding Achievement Award, while Grace Nickel, a visual artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba, won the Saidye-Bronfman Award.
These winners each receive a $25,000 scholarship.