Andreas Rutkauskas, Mount Christie Wildfire (2021) from After the Fire. Courtesy the artist
Photographic artist Andreas Rutkauskas wins the Prefix Prize with Mount Christie Wildfire (2021) from After the Fire. Image courtesy of the artist.
BY ARTCENTRON
TORONTO, CANADA- Photographic artist Andreas Rutkauskas is the winner of the second annual Prefix Prize. He is a creative documentarian who captures landscapes marred by industrial and technological intervention. Rutkauskas photographic projects bring attention to climate change and how humans are destroying the environment through their actions.
As the winner of this year’s competition, Andreas Rutkauskas receives an exhibition, a publication, and a cash prize of $2,000.00 CA. The exhibition aspect of the prize is currently on at the Urbanspace Gallery. It features photographs from After the Fire (2019), an ongoing series inspired by the artist’s personal experiences with wildfire seasons of increasing intensity. Supporting the exhibition is P.S.–2.2, the fifth in this series of exhibition catalogs produced by Prefix ICA. It features an essay by Scott McLeod. Starting May 30th, the digital catalog will be available for free download from Prefix.
The Prefix Prize is a core program of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival. The judges for this year’s competition included seven senior photography experts drawn from the local, national, and international communities. On the list are Claire Dawson, co-founder and creative director, Underline Studio; Logan MacDonald, artist, curator, and assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, and Scott McLeod, founding director, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art. Others are José Roca, artistic director of Flora Ars y Natura and the 23rd Biennale of Sydney; Tara Smith, programs director, Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, and Jennifer Young and Caroline Laxton, co-chairs, Project Development, Partners in Art.
In addition to choosing Rutkauskas as the recipient of this year’s prize, the jury also recognized Ethan Murphy with an honorable mention. Murphy is from St. John’s, Newfoundland. He explores the rural environment of his home province in the wake of the cod moratorium.
An award-winning photographic artist, Andreas Rutkauskas holds a BFA from the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg) and an MFA in Photography from Concordia University (Montréal). He is the recipient of numerous residencies, including the Canadian Forces Artists Program, the Chilkoot Trail Artist Residency, and the Banff Centre. His most recent residency was at the Fondation Grantham pour l’art et l’environment (Saint-Edmond-de-Grantham, QC). He was the first artist to attend the inaugural residency. Rutkauskas was a research fellow with the Canadian Photography Institute, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa) in 2018. He is currently a lecturer in Creative Studies, Visual Arts at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus. Andreas Rutkauskas‘ work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and artist-run centers across Canada and internationally. Rutkauskas is a resident of Kelowna, B.C.
The Prefix Prize is an annual award for photographic artists of any nationality. It was launched in 2021 with the objective of honoring artists at any stage of their careers, who have yet to receive the recognition they deserve. The prize consists of an exhibition, a publication, and a cash award of $2,000.00. The Prefix Prize is the project of the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art with the assistance of presentation partners, the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, Tangled Art and Disability, and Underline Studio, as well as a founding partner, Partners in Art. Calls are out for next year’s competition.
Already, calls are on for next year’s competition. The third annual Prefix Prize will be awarded in May 2023.
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