This year’s BMO 1st Art! competition regional winner for the province of Quebec is Avery Mikolic-O’Rourke, BFA 22, who recently graduated from the Intermedia program in Concordia’s Department of Studio Arts.
The BMO 1st Art! annual contest has for the past 20 years been celebrating the creativity of Canadian art students from more than 100 postsecondary institutions across the country. The 2022 national prize of $15,000 was awarded to Shizuka Yoshimura from the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City.
Previously, Concordia graduates Maggy Hamel-Metsos, BFA 21, took home the regional prize in 2021 and Clara Couzino, BFA 21, won the national prize in 2018.
For Mikolic-O’Rourke, winning the Quebec regional prize represents an exciting opportunity as an emerging artist. “It’s still almost hard to believe,” he says.
“I know people who were nominated and there’s so much amazing work. I just feel very fortunate!”
“Avery’s innovative use of video and digital imagery stood out to our selection committee members, who had the unenviable task of isolating 12 works from hundreds of worthy submissions,” says Dawn Cain, curator for the BMO Corporate Art Collection.
This year’s competition was judged by a committee composed of Emily Falencki, a Nova Scotia-based artist and educator; Sequoia Miller, chief curator of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto; Michelle Jacques, chief curator of the Remai Modern in Saskatoon; and Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre, curator of contemporary art at the Musée d’art de Joliette in Quebec.
