18.03.15 - Curatorial studies student cheyanne turions wins 2014 Award for Emerging Curator of Contemporary Canadian Art

Master of Visual Studies curatorial studies student cheyanne turions was awarded the 2014 Award for Emerging Curator of Contemporary Canadian Art. The award is presented to a Canadian curator, under the age of 35, whose body of work has achieved a public presence and peer recognition. The award was presented during a reception at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto.

Curator and jury member Daina Augaitis said about cheyanne: "Her curatorial vision stands out for being highly considered and articulated, ‎as well as being relevant, provocative, risky and ambitious." cheyanne says her work "approaches the space of exhibition as alive -- the gallery is a space of dialogue where artists, curators and publics can reflect on and experiment with ways of seeing (and being)."

The jury was impressed with turions' breadth of work, its intelligence, and sensitivity. Summary of highlights include:

Most recently she co-curated the series Canadian Ecstasy with poet and performance artist Ariana Reines at Gallery TPW and reviewed the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture for C Magazine.
Her exhibition at the Art Gallery of Windsor, Other Electricities, was presented the inaugural award for Innovation in a Collections-based Exhibition by the Ontario Association of Art Galleries in 2014.
She has presented other curatorial projects at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Video Fag, SBC Gallery, Nuit Blanche (Montréal), Art Metropole, A Space, Gallery TPW, the Images Festival, VIVO Media Arts and the Western Front.
Her writing has been published by Monte Cristo Magazine, the Blackwood Gallery, General Fine Arts, Prefix Photo, Syphon, the MacLaren Art Centre, Gallery 44, the Museum of the Near Future, FUSE and Canadian Art.
Currently she is a member of the co-creative team for the Art and Society theme within the Cities for People project and works as a Curatorial Assistant at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery while pursing a master's degree in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto.
She also sits on the Board of Directors for Fillip Magazine and is the director of No Reading After the Internet (Toronto).

turions was selected by a jury of arts professionals, including Daina Augaitis, Chief Curator/Associate Director at the Vancouver Art Gallery and recipient of the 2014 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence; Reesa Greenberg, art and exhibition historian based in Ottawa; and Pamela Meredith, Senior Curator, TD Bank Group, Toronto.