NSCAD University wins big at the 2021 BMO 1st Art! Award

By Jolinne Kearns

We are thrilled to share that NSCAD graduate Anna Kuelken (BFA 2021) and student Max TS. Yang are recipients of the BMO 1st Art! Award!

Anna is the National Winner of the BMO 1st Art! Award. Her winning submission is a video titled “Father Like Son”, which gives a brief look into the life on a small family farm. In Anna’s words: “I moved back to my family farm in rural Alberta when the pandemic hit. I found myself observing how my brother has integrated his kids into farm life. I wanted to focus on my niece and nephew, who are slowly learning the things I did as a child, including the hard ones. My seven-year-old niece witnessed the death of an animal we had to butcher, but in time she started to help. Although difficult, we are happy she cried because this shows empathy and an understanding of where her food comes from.”

Max is the regional winner for Nova Scotia. His work, titled A Family of III (slip casted stoneware, found furniture), is an autobiographical artwork addressing the strain divorce has on families. “To my family and I, dinner and dining together has a strong symbolic meaning of togetherness, yet I have never had the chance to sit down at a dinner table with both of my parents. I reflect this notion by presenting only two chairs at the table and throwing them on their sides, stacked on top of each other, threatening to collapse and scatter at any moment. What prevents the furniture from falling apart are the ceramic chains, symbolizing the family bond that ties everything together,” reads Max’s description.

BMO 1st Art! celebrates the creativity of art school students from over 100 post-secondary institutions across Canada. Every year BMO Financial Group invites the deans and instructors of undergraduate-level certificate, diploma, or degree programs in studio art to select from their graduating classes three students whose ability and imagination place them first among their peers.

Below is a full list of all the BMO 1st Art! Award recipients. Congratulations to all!

National Winner:

  • Anna Kuelken, Father Like Son, NSCAD University

Regional Winners:

  • Kev Liang, Jiā yóu, University of Alberta (Alberta)
  • Shannon Pahladsingh, oh thank goodness, University of the Fraser Valley (British Columbia)
  • Tayler Buss, Rearview, University of Manitoba
  • Alana Morouney, I’ll get you next time/I keep letting you win so that I can hold your hand, Mount Allison University (New Brunswick)
  • Bethany MacKenzie, What Will the Worms Think of Me?, Memorial University of Newfoundland (Newfoundland)
  • Max TS. Yang, A Family of III, NSCAD University (Nova Scotia)
  • Erin Faulks, The Pandemicock, Nunavut Arctic College (Nunavut)
  • Allysha Jacque, Kâkuvunga, York University (Ontario)
  • Donald Price, Egg and Chain, Holland College (Prince Edward Island)
  • Maggy Hamel-Metsos, No Place to Stand, Concordia University (Quebec)
  • Holly Aubichon, Modern Medicine, University of Regina (Saskatchewan)
  • Juliet Di Carlo, Consume in a way that makes it look Authentic, Yukon School of Visual Arts (Yukon)
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