2019 A+ EXHIBITION
SPAO (School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa) created A+ in 2007 as a way to celebrate the work of its part-time students, working in the evenings and on weekends in SPAO’s studio, darkroom, and digital lab.
With the establishment of the SPAO Centre in 2017, the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa has been given a chance to reimagine this project. A+ is now a greater opportunity for emerging and seasoned artists to show their work in a professional and accessible gallery setting, to add to their visual arts resumés, to receive honours and awards for their work, and to be seen and considered by elevated visual arts community leaders.
2019 AWARD RECIPIENTS
2019 PRIZES
All A+ submissions will all have a chance to win a selection of awesome prizes, including Google Home Personal Assistants, National Arts Centre Tickets, National Gallery of Canada Memberships, Gift Cards from our sponsors and even a GoPro Camera. Every single submission to A+ will also be entered into a draw just for submitting!
Thanks to our partners National Gallery of Canada and National Arts Centre, as well as our sponsors Wallack's, Patrick Gordon Framing, Best Buy Merivale, and Black Squirrel Books. Every winner will also receive a gift certificate for SPAO part-time classes, and SPAO merchandise from our new store.
2019 A+ JURY
CATHERINE SINCLAIR
Catherine Sinclair is Senior Curator at the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG). She has curated upwards of forty exhibitions including most recently, Michèle Provost: Everything Must Go / Liquidation totale (2018) and We’ll all become stories (2018). She has presented her work at forums such as the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Conference (CWAHI), and is a 2018 recipient of the Art Association of Museum Curators (AAMC) Foundation Engagement Program for International Curators.
JOANNE STOBER
Joanne Stober has spent nearly two decades curating and managing National collections of historical and contemporary art and photography. As Historian, War and Visual Culture at the Canadian War Museum, she has developed a unique vision for the position of curator of visual arts that includes historical and contemporary art. She has a PhD in Communications and Film History from Concordia University.
GUILLERMO TREJO
Guillermo Trejo is a Mexican-born artist and co-curator at Studio Sixty Six Contemporary Art Gallery. He completed his BFA with a specialization in printmaking in Mexico City, and received an MFA degree from the University of Ottawa. Since relocating to Canada, Guillermo's has shown his work both locally and beyond including a solo show at Saw Gallery (Ottawa), presented his MFA thesis at the Ottawa Art Gallery, and participated in the International Symposium of Contemporary Art of Baie de Saint Paul (Québec) and the Creative Fusion residency (Cleveland). Guillermo is a consultant at the National Gallery of Canada, and is an instructor at the Ottawa School of Art.