The Vince Files

My cousin Karen just won the first ever Sylvie and Simon Blais Award for Emerging Visual Artists.  Way to go, Karen!

She also has a website and blog.  Check them out at http://www.KarenZalamea.Com and http://karenzalamea.blogspot.com/

Here’s the Press Release:

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Montréal, Wednesday, May 6, 2009 – The Sylvie and Simon Blais Foundation is pleased to announce the name of the first recipient of the Sylvie and Simon Blais Award for Emerging Visual Artists. Karen Zalamea, currently at work on an MFA with a concentration in Photography at Concordia University, has the honour of receiving this award. The Foundation would also like to salute Meghan Price (Concordia University) and Stéphane Dionne (UQÀM), who were among the three finalists for the award. We were very happy with the high quality of the seventeen applications received, which made the jury’s final decision an extremely difficult one.

First and foremost a photographer, Karen Zalamea has broadened her practice to include video, performance and installations. This young artist explores the notion of work—which she depicts as a physical experience involving repeated gestures and exertions—as it defines men and women’s relationships with others and with the world around them.

The members of the jury, John R. Porter, Honorary Director of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Lise Lamarche, art historian, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Curator of Contemporay Art at the National Gallery of Canada, Éliane Excoffier, photographer and Simon Blais, met to select the recipient of the award on April 23. An exhibition of works by Karen Zalamea will be held at Galerie Simon Blais from August 5 to September 5 of this year.

Sylvie and Simon Blais wanted to commemorate their gallery’s 20th anniversary by making a direct contribution to the community. This led to the creation of the Sylvie and Simon Blais Foundation and the establishment of the Sylvie and Simon Blais Award for Emerging Visual Artists. This award—the only one of its kind in Québec—aims to promote and publicize the work of young artists by providing a student in a Master of Fine Arts program at a Québec university with a scholarship and a professional-level solo exhibition at Galerie Simon Blais during the month of August 2009. We are proud to have been able to put together a jury made up of very distinguished members of the art scene, who determined the recipient of the award from among the seventeen applications we received, declared Simon Blais, President of the Foundation.

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For further information:  Simon Blais, 514 849-1165

• • Galerie Simon Blais, 5420 Saint-Laurent Boulevard (north of Fairmount),
    Montréal

• • Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.