Tim Whiten Awarded the 2022 Gershon Iskowitz Prize
“TORONTO (February 22, 2023) – The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation in partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is pleased to announce Tim Whiten as the recipient of the 2022 GERSHON ISKOWITZ PRIZE AT THE AGO. The award, which includes a $75,000 cash award and a solo exhibition at the AGO is presented annually to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to visual arts in Canada.
For more than fifty years, Tim Whiten has been creating personal and evocative works that unite the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and material realms. He has pursued a creative practice – one that includes gestural drawings, sculptures, performances, and installations – rooted in a deep understanding of spiritual cultural practices from around the world. Whiten deploys this knowledge in his work, creating intimate experiences that allow for the experience and contemplation of forces beyond our conscious comprehension. His profound spiritual investigations evade easy categorization and manifest in ways that are both spellbinding, and impeccably produced.
Rather than an artist, Whiten considers himself an “image maker who also creates cultural objects. The process is what guides the work.” His choice of materials comes from everyday experiences and many of his objects are either tools or toys. These objects are meant to take the viewer to another place or another time.
Max Dean, a member of the 2022 Prize jury, spoke to both Whiten’s long-term commitment and outstanding involvement. “One is at first taken in by the material, but the content of the work transcends.”
Jurors for the 2022 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO were: artist and recipient of the 2005 Gershon Iskowitz Prize, Max Dean; Michelle Jacques, Head of Collections/Exhibitions & Chief Curator, Remai Modern; Catherine Crowston, Director of the Art Gallery of Alberta (Iskowitz Foundation Director); Gerald McMaster, artist and Director of Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge at OCADU (Iskowitz Foundation Director); and Stephan Jost, Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario (Iskowitz Foundation Director).
Tim Whiten is represented by the Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto. More details about Tim Whiten’s exhibition at the AGO in 2025 will be announced as they become available. ” -AGO Press Release
Read the full announcement here: https://ago.ca/press-release/tim-whiten-awarded-2022-gershon-iskowitz-prize
Pictured above: (Left) Tim Whiten, Reliquaire (2012) handcrafted crystal clear glass, human skull, and gold leaf. (Right) Headshot of Tim Whiten by Margherita Matera.