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Artist Alex Janvier will receive the 2017 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award, along with composer John Estacio, and poet and writer Alice Major. The announcement was made by the 2017 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation on July 11.
Janvier is one of the country’s foremost contemporary artists. The National Gallery of Canada recently held a major retrospective of his work called Alex Janvier: Modern Indigenous Master.
His works combine influences from his Dene Suline and Saulteaux roots, including his mother’s beadwork and birch bark basketry, for an eloquent blend of abstract and representational images with bright, often symbolic colours, which speak to his lived experience as a First Nations person emerging from a history of oppression and struggles for cultural empowerment, reads the foundations press statement.
His commissions include Morning Star, the 418 square metre work featured in the dome of the Canadian Museum of History, as well as Tsa tsa ke k’e (Iron Foot Place), the tile floor mosaic unveiled in 2016 at the Winter Garden of the Rogers Place arena in Edmonton.
Janvier is a member of the Order of Canada, a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee award recipient, and recipient of the National Aboriginal Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award comes with a handcrafted medal, $30,000 and a two week residency at the Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Studios.
Lois E. Mitchell, CM, AOE, LLD, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, will present the awards at a brunch celebration hosted by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity on Sept. 23. Shelagh Rogers will emcee the event.
For event tickets ($65) and overnight room bookings call 1-800-413-8368 or purchase online at https://tickets.banffcentre.ca.