Lauren Gabrielle Fournier Wins 2018 Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators

We are pleased to announce that Lauren Gabrielle Fournier has been awarded the 6th Annual Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators. Her project, epistemologies of the moon, has been selected as the winning submission and will be presented at the Art Gallery of Guelph from September – December, 2018. The award was presented at a gala awards ceremony, amongst leaders of the Canadian arts scene, at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto on March 7, 2018.

epistemologies of the moon engages with the symbolism and imagery of the moon as a historically feminine and, more recently, feminist symbol, opening it up to new meanings and valences in the transnational 21st century. The exhibition emerges from Fournier’s curatorial research around land and place, settler-colonialisms and decolonization, mythology, mysticism and alternative spiritualities and includes work by emerging and mid-career artists and collectives whose practices are indebted to ideas around the politics, aesthetics, and ethics of feminism today.

This year’s jury, chaired by Andrew Hunter (AGG Senior Curator), included Srimoyee Mitra (Director of Stamps Gallery, Stamps School of Art and Design, Ann Arbor, Michigan) and Lisa Steele (Artistic Director of VTape and Professor, University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design).

According to Andrew Hunter,

Lauren Gabrielle Fournier’s submission stood out for its richness of critical thought as well as its deep relevance to this moment in Canada. epistemologies of the moon features an impressive group of artists and this curator is clearly committed to true public engagement and creative research.”

“A brilliant title,” stated Srimoyee Mitra, “Fournier is an excellent writer and they show confidence and depth in bridging communities and complexities. This has potential to be a very impactful and expansive project.”

Lisa Steele highlighted the “strong, interdisciplinary and participatory emphasis” within Fournier’s work, as well as their “deep focus on community as well as the negotiation of safety and trauma.”

Fournier’s commitment to a progressive and socially engaged methodology reflects the vision of the Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators as well as the values of the Art Gallery of Guelph.