The multidisciplinary artist Stan Douglas received the prestigious Scotiabank Photography Award 2013, awarded annually to a Canadian artist. Founded by the Ontario photographer Edward Burtynsky, the prize offers a grant of 50,000 dollars and a solo show during the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival at the Ryerson Images Center in Toronto.
Large-format photographs reminiscent of paintings adorn the gallery walls. In the form of historical narratives reconstructed in a modern context, the artist uses the medium of photography to tell forgotten stories of cultural identity. The images are taken from four series: Disco Angola, Crowds and Riots, Midcentury Studio and Corrupt Files, the artist’s most recent. Stan Douglas’s work takes inspiration from both documentary and pictorialist photography, reinforcing the effect of the anachronism. The viewer should feel free to interpret the photographs with information about the location, historical context and fiction.
Stan Douglas’s work has appeared in several international collections. The winner of the 2012 Infiniti Award in the Art category, Douglas lives in Vancouver.
EXHIBITION
Stan Douglas
Ryerson Image Centre
33 Gould street, Toronto
Canada
www.scotiabank.com/photoaward/en/0,,6336,00.html
www.ryerson.ca/ric/exhibitions/StanDouglas.html
