Jeff Wall wins $30,000 Audain Prize for B.C. artists

Jeff Wall, a Vancouver-based photo artist whose work is influential around the world, has won the Audain Prize, British Columbia's most prestigious visual art award.

Wall was named winner of the lifetime achievement award, with a prize pot increased this year to $30,000, on Thursday.

Vancouver artists Tim Lee and Kevin Schmidt were named recipients of the VIVA Awards for exemplary achievement by British Columbian artists in mid-career.

Wall, who works out of a Vancouver studio, has played an important role in re-establishing photography as a significant art form.

TheVancouver Art Gallery isthe largest public holder of Wall's work in North America and its collection includes some of his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs purchased with the help of the Audain Foundation.Wall is also known for his video work and black and white photographs.

Wall's work has been exhibited at galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Tate Modern in London.

Korean-born Lee is a sculptor, photographer, painter and video artist who often uses his own image as a central subject.

His modern, frequently humorous, works include video-performance The Move which was shownat Vancouver's Western Front in 2001.

His work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern.

Schmidt graduatedfrom Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1997 and works primarily in photo and video.

His work often represents nature as a sublime spectacle. He has had exhibitions in Vancouver, Frankfurt, New York, Edmonton and Edinburgh.

His installation Fog, 2004 is currently showing at the VAG in the exhibit The Tree: From the Sublime to the Social.

Michael Audain, chairman of Polygon Homes Ltd., has been a leading supporter and philanthropist of the visual arts in British Columbia. He is chair of the Vancouver Art Gallery Foundation and of the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The VIVA Awards were founded by renowned British Columbia painter Jack Shadbolt and his wife Doris Shadbolt, who was a curator and writer.

The Audain Prize and VIVA Awards will be presented May 22 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.