Opening Reception and Awards Celebration: October 1, 2013, 7 – 9 p.m.
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
952 Queen Street West 
BMO 1st Art! celebrates the best of Canada’s recent visual arts graduates, from coast to coast. This year’s national and regional winners, who demonstrate the excellence and promise of the newest generation of artists, gathered at Mocca for the Award Ceremony and the Opening Reception of their show.
Dawn Cain, Curator, BMO Financial Group
Award winning artists (from left to right): Whitney French, Eshan Rafi, Hillary Smith, Laura Rokas-Bérubé, Derian Blake, Sam Knopp, Erika Dueck,, Tiffany Wollman, Charles Brendon Schick, Carson Isenor, Valerie LeClair, Alexis Bulman, Frederick Silas Qulaut.
The national winner received $10,000 and the regional winners each received $5,000. As the ultimate accolade, the national winner’s artwork becomes part of the BMO Corporate Art Collection, which includes works by historical and contemporary Canadian masters.
National winner, Erika Dueck from the University of Manitoba.
Her mixed media installation work, The Ephemeral Mind, took 40 hours to set up in MOCCA.
Visitors with Erika Dueck, The Ephemeral Mind. Mixed media installation, 203.2 x 203.2 cm.
Award winner, Alexis Bulman, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, with her work, Mildew
Visitor in front of Pipe by Tiffany Wollman, Alberta College of Art & Design
Visitors with Carson Isenor, Nest (right), Mount Allison University, New Brunswick
See the winning works at the 1st Art! Exhibition, October 2 – 27, 2013, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, 952 Queen Street West. Gallery hours: Tues–Sun 11 – 6 p.m.
Photo: Celeste Ringrose