2016 MPfYCC Curators’ Talk and Award Presentation

Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators – Award Presentation and Talk on Saturday, November 19 at 4 pm

The Art Gallery of Guelph is pleased to welcome Isabelle and Sophie Lynch, winners of the 2016 Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators, for the award presentation at the Art Gallery of Guelph on Saturday November 19th at 4 pm. The curators will also offer a presentation addressing their exhibition Blood, Sweat, and Tears, on view now at the Art Gallery of Guelph. All welcome; free admission.

The jury for the 2016 Middlebrook Prize included Alison Cooley (2014 Middlebrook Prize Recipient with Natasha Chaykowski), Melissa Bennett (Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Hamilton) and Robert Enright (Research Professor in Art Theory and Criticism, University of Guelph and Senior Contributing Editor, Border Crossings). “Sophie and Isabelle Lynch’s project, Blood, Sweat, and Tears tackles urgent, enduring questions of labour with deftness and sophistication,” they stated. “Their proposal demonstrates solid insight and attunement to contemporary art’s stakes, both in the idea of artistic production as work, and in broader issues of labour that touch audiences outside the visual arts.”

Featured Canadian and international artists in the exhibition include Kerry Downey (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) and Joanna Seitz (Brooklyn, NY), Richard lbghy & Marilou Lemmens (Montreal/Durham-Sud, QC), Virginia Lee Montgomery (New York, NY/Chester, VT), Mika Rottenberg (New York, NY), and Adrienne Spier (Guelph, ON).

Isabelle Lynch studied at McGill University (MA in Art History) and at the University of Ottawa (BA in Philosophy and History and Theory of Art). She has worked at McGill University, the National Gallery of Canada, the Icelandic Art Center, and the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto. She was the winner of the 2014 esse arts + opinions Young Critics Competition.

Sophie Lynch studied at McGill University (MA in Art History) andof Guelph at the University of Ottawa (BA in Philosophy and History and Theory of Art). She has worked at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, the National Gallery of Canada, the Icelandic Art Center, and Canadian Art magazine, and was a MuSe graduate intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2016.

The Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators is presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with the support of the Centre Wellington Community Foundation’s Middlebrook Social Innovation Fund, The Guelph Community Foundation: Musagetes Fund, as well as private donations. Part of the AGG’s focus on mentorship in the arts sector and the development of new and diverse audiences, the gallery would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Department of Canadian Heritage.