Announcing the 2023 Saunderson Prize Laureates
September 18, 2023
Maggy Hamel-Metsos (left), Shaya Ishaq (centre) and Lan “Florence” Yee (right) have been selected from a pool of candidates from across Canada for our annual William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Artists. Find out about their exciting practices below!
Maggy Hamel-Metsos
Working primarily in sculpture, Maggy Hamel-Metsos’s practice is a negotiation between the singular (personal) and the common (cultural). Through objects, images and text, she establishes semantic connections between the personal, the mythological and the historical. She is interested in the mechanisms of reduction, expansion and abstraction present in language and while making use of words in her own work, she incorporates those strategies in her material propositions as well.
Hamel-Metsos’s work has been exhibited and is in private collections in Canada, Germany, and the USA. Caretakers, her debut exhibition at the Parc Offsite gallery in Montreal, took place in 2021 and was followed up by a second solo show titled Whole Wide World. Recent exhibitions include Life’s Marching Band at Pumice Raft in Toronto and My Whole World at Baader-Meinhof in Omaha. She is the 2021 Québec recipient of the BMO 1st Art! Prize and is a laureate of Fonderie Darling’s 2023-2026 Montreal Studio Program.
Find Maggy on Instagram at @tungstenwarshields
Shaya Ishaq
Shaya Ishaq is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and designer interested in craft, diaspora, design anthropology, and temporality.
“Devoted to materiality, I often work with textiles and clay to create wearable art, jewelry, and immersive installations that embrace the emergent possibilities of spatial design. Through the meditative processes of weaving, felting, and handmade ceramics, I explore the nuances of my positionality and the liminality of rites of passage which often leads to sculptural textile and ceramic works.”
“From a young age, creative expression was my way to make a mark, share what was inside me or my perception of the world. If it were not for the teachers and mentors I met along the way who fostered this impulse, I don’t know where I would be today. I am particularly grateful for Toshiko MacAdam, Tanya Aguiñiga, Surabhi Ghosh, and Rory MacDonald for their impact in my journey thus far. I also have immense gratitude for my extended community network that has supported and affirmed me along my path. I would also like to extend gratitude to my incredible matrilineage of Nubi and Lugbara weavers who I feel infinitely connected to in my practice as a weaver and material based artist.”
Find Shaya at www.shayaishaq.com and
on Instagram at @shyshaya
Lan “Florence” Yee
Lan “Florence” Yee is a visual artist and self-proclaimed serial collaborator based in Tkaronto/Toronto and Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal.
“I collect text in underappreciated places and ferment it until it is too suspicious to ignore (…). As I sought answers to mouldy questions throughout the years, local and global histories complicated my tenuous relationship to living in Quebec. I was only able to learn about the migratory experiences of my parents and grandparents through university history classes and Wikipedia. This unfortunate irony became the subject and tone of my early work, centered on diasporic anxieties, migrant silence, and assimilationist imperatives.”
“I am indebted to my professors at Dawson College, Concordia University, and OCAD U, who guided me towards alternative ways of doing and being, namely Peter Morin, Alice Ming Wai Jim, Heather Igloliorte, Louise Arsenault, Mary Sui-Yee Wong, and Nadia Myre. Their belief in building better worlds has likewise encouraged me to seek more sustainable ecosystems in art and collectivity.”
Find Lan at www.Lanflorenceyee.com and
on Instagram at @lan.florence.yee
Portfolios were evaluated by Michelle Jacques, Head of Exhibitions & Collections/Chief Curator, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, and laureate of The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence, 2022, and Hajra Waheed, multidisciplinary artist and laureate of The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts, 2022.
The Hnatyshyn Foundation expresses its thanks to the jurors who contributed to making this selection, and wishes the laureates continued success in their careers!
