Canada’s Hnatyshyn Foundation honoured an artist and a curator with its prestigious Mid-Career Awards this week. The artist Curtis “Talwst” Santiago, who grew up in Alberta with Trinidadian parents and now calls Munich home, will receive C$30,000 ($21,700) for excellence in visual art, while Toronto-based Wanda Nanibush picks up C$20,000 ($14,400) for curatorial excellence.
Nanibush’s selection is especially timely given the circumstances of her abrupt departure from the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) last November, where she had been the institution’s first curator of Canadian and Indigenous. It was subsequently revealed that the AGO was pressured to fire Nanibush amid a letter campaign that accused her of “posting inflammatory, inaccurate rants against Israel” in the wake of the 7 October 2023 Hamas terror attack and Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Curtis Santiago, Culture in the Key of Kerry, Sung by my Aunties on a Saturday afternoon, 2024 Courtesy the artist
Santiago, who has also spent time in New York, Portugal, South Africa and Senegal, was almost in disbelief when he got word from the foundation. “Wow, what a way to end the day!” he said. “I was absolutely shocked to read The Hnatyshyn Foundation’s email. I did not believe it initially and had to read it multiple times. It’s an honour to receive this award and join the long list of esteemed laureates. To have my name with the likes of Rebecca Belmore, Stan Douglas and Janet Cardiff is a source of great pride.”
The artist is known for a wide range of work, including miniatures, painting, drawing, installation, beading and video. His work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Lenbachhaus-Munich and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Nanibush was very touched, too. “I am deeply honoured to receive this recognition from the Hnatyshyn Foundation and a jury of esteemed curators and artists,” she said. “My work as a curator is really for artists and communities, so I share this recognition with them for their transformative work.I have learned philosophy, politics, alternative embodiment, dreaming and more from artists’ works and curating is my way of giving back to them while sharing new ways of being with audiences. This award gives me the courage to continue.”
Installation view of Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC in 2023, curated by Wanda Nanibush, tour organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario Photo by Wanda Nanibush
Nanibush, from the Beausoleil First Nation, received her Masters in Visual Studies from the University of Toronto, where she has also taught graduate courses. She serves as adjunct faculty at York University and will be the Helen Frankenthaler Visiting Professor in Curating in the Ph.D programme in art history at the City University of New York next year.
Nanibush and Santiago were chosen by a panel of contemporary artists, curators and experts from across Canada. Others in the running with Santiago were Nadia Belerique, Howie Tsui, Skeena Reece and Marigold Santos. Nanibush was selected from a shortlist that included Jason St-Laurent, Crystal Mowry and Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre.