Toronto artist Shary Boyle wins Iskowitz prize

Multidisciplinary Toronto artist Shary Boyle, whose live-drawing work has beenprojected during concertsby musicians such as Feist and Peaches, has won the 2009 Gershon Iskowitz Prize.

The $25,000 prize, awarded by the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Iskowitz Foundation, is given to aid the development of a promising Canadian artist.

Boyle, raised in Scarborough and a graduate of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, started showing her work in underground galleries on Queen St. West in Toronto in the 1990s.

Recently, she has attracted attention for her hand-animated projections which have accompanied performances byFeist, Jens Lekman, Will Oldham, Es and Christine Fellows as well as for her intricate porcelain figurines.

Her work is multi-disciplinary, including drawing, painting, sculpture and performance andoften exploring themes of gender, sex and violence.

Her live-drawing and performance pieces include A Night with Kramers Ergot for the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and Dark Hand and Lamplight, performed with musician Doug Paisley in Brooklyn and L.A. .

Boyle'sworks often incorporate contemporary takes onmyths and archetypes, infused with a touch of the grotesque.

Her porcelain figurines, whichare a stunningand sometimes disturbing fusion ofthe delicateand the grotesque, came out of Boyle's interest in thecraft of porcelain lace-draping. She learned the technique by befriending and apprenticingwith elderlywomen in Ontario whouse the technique to create more traditional porcelain figurines.

Boyle's porcelainsculptures have been exhibited in solo shows atthe Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery inWaterloo, Ont.; Toronto's Power Plant; the Space Gallery inLondon, U.K., amongothers.

Two porcelain works To Colonize the Moon and The Rejection of Pluto were commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario and are exhibited in its permanent collection.

Boyle was a finalist this yearfor the Sobey Art Award, which was won by David Altmejd.Shewas also a semifinalist for the award in 2006.

AGO curator of contemporary art David Moos callsBoyle's work "singularly bold and original" and said she is starting to achieve international prominence.

Herwork appears in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, theMuse des beaux-arts de Montral, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Paisley Museum of Art in Scotland and others. In Toronto, she is represented by Jessica Bradley Art+Projects gallery.

The Iskowitz Prize was established in 1985 by painter Gershon Iskowitz to raise the profile of visual arts in Canada.

Past winners include Mark Lewis, whose films are currently on display at the AGO, and Franoise Sullivan, who will have an AGO exhibit in February 2010.