Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss Win the 2024 VIVA Awards

The Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts will celebrate the 2024 VIVA Awards winners, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, in an awards ceremony on March 26 at Emily Carr University. This marks the foundation’s first in-person ceremony since 2019.

“The jury was unanimous in their support for Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss as the 2024 VIVA Awards recipients,” says Melanie O’Brian, associate director/curator at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia and chair of the Shadbolt Foundation. “We acknowledge these two artists’ outstanding contributions as committed and visible members in the local, regional and national art communities. The jury additionally noted that both artists’ practices address land, politics and economies in significant material processes.”

The VIVA Awards, established in 1988 by Jack and Doris Shadbolt, are annual prizes awarded to mid-career visual artists in British Columbia who demonstrate exceptional creative ability and commitment to the visual arts. The 2024 jury consisted of Sean Alward, Charles Campbell, Laiwan, Hazel Meyer and Samuel Roy-Bois.

Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill is an artist and writer whose practice explores the history of found materials to examine concepts of land, property and alternative economies. Her work often addresses capitalism and its vulnerabilities, using readily sourced materials to consider private property, exchange and black-market economies. A member of the Indigenous artist collective BUSH Gallery, Hill prioritizes land-based teachings and Indigenous epistemologies. She holds an MFA from the California College of the Arts and degrees from Simon Fraser University. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including MoMA, the Venice Biennale and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Stó:lō, Hawaiian and Swiss interdisciplinary artist, educator and Indigenous ethnobotanist. With 30 years of practice, her work encompasses storytelling and collaborative initiatives centred on Indigenous plant knowledge and natural space restoration. Recognized for sharing traditional knowledge through various media, including digital media and weaving, Wyss has exhibited at institutions such as the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Recipient of the 2010 Mayor’s Arts Award, she has also held residencies with Griffin Art Projects and the Vancouver Public Library, among others. In 2022, Wyss received an honorary doctorate of letters from Emily Carr University.

The March 26 ceremony will also mark an opportunity to celebrate those who received awards in years without an in-person presentation: Hazel Meyer and Laiwan (2023), Charles Campbell and Jan Wade (2022), Diyan Achjadi and Samuel Roy-Bois (2021), and Lucie Chan, Cindy Mochizuki and Tania Willard (2020). Recipients of the two most recent Alvin Balkind Curator’s Prize, Daina Augaitis and Makiko Hara, will also be honoured.

Admission is free for the awards ceremony, but an RSVP is required here. For more information, visit the Shadbolt Foundation’s website.