The Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts (GGAVMA) were created in 1999 by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Governor General of Canada. The award winners are recognized for their contributions to Canada’s vibrant arts community.
The work of four of the 2019 GGAVMA laureates is included in the Canada Council Art Bank collection, including that of Toronto-based artist Stephen Andrews. For more than thirty years, Andrews has produced a large body of work that explores memory, identity, and technology, and their representations in various media, including drawing, animation, and painting.
At a recent luncheon at the Art Bank in honour of the GGAVMA winners, Stephen Andrews had the opportunity to view some of his work in the Art Bank collection. This includes one of his earliest works, Weed Seeds, which is part of a series of black and white drawings from 1986. The drawing, which shows a rendering of a microscopically enlarged seed, was informed by Andrews’s work with plants as a landscape artist, and by his viewing of plants under microscope with his father, a horticulturalist.
Stephen Andrews, Weeds Seeds (1986)
“The thing about weeds is they are the first plants that grow in a disturbed environment,” Andrews explained. “They are pioneer plants—the first plants to start the rejuvenation process. Weed Seeds for me was about promise.”
While creating the series in the early days of HIV-AIDS, Andrews tested positive for HIV.
He lost many of his friends, including his partner and studio-mate to the disease. “I was trying to bring that part of my culture and my art practice together,” he noted in reference to Weed Seeds. “[Weed Seeds was created at the] beginning of identity politics, and people were looking for meaning.”
Another work by Andrews in the Art Bank collection is John Torrington (from Group Portrait) (1986). The piece is from a series of portraits of important but lesser-known Canadian historical figures. John Torrington was a member of the Franklin expedition, and Plains Cree chief Mistahimaskwa, known as Big Bear—a pacifist during the 1885 North-West Rebellion.
Stephen Andrews with his artwork John Torrington (from Group Portrait) (1986)
“These people were key players in our history, but are kind of unknown to us,” Andrews explained. “[They are] sort of like Canadian artists— you can be a famous Canadian artist, and nobody knows your name.”
Watch a portrait of Stephen Andrews from the 2019 GGAVMAs.
And you can explore Stephen Andrews’s recent work on his website.
About the Author: Anita Barak
Anita Barak is an Ottawa-based writer and art history and curatorial studies student at Carleton University. She once wrote that “Art can save your life,” and believes it to be even more relevant today.