Congrats, Shout outs, & Props to Nicolas Grenier, Dil Hildebrand, Daniel Langevin, and Luce Meunier

Howdy!

Nice to see the RBC painting competition is doing such a surperlative job, again. They announced the short list today. Nicolas Grenier, Dil Hildebrand, Daniel Langevin, and Luce Meunier are the local artists who made the cut. There are only three artists from Vancouver, and two from Toronto, so there might be something to Montreal being creative...

Some of the things that caught my eye, they have repositioned the competition so it is now "the highest total award of any painting competition in Canada." Oooh! I'm impressed. Second, while the title says "16 painters" if you look at the list there are in fact only 15. It'll be interesting to see how many newspaper editors catch the mistake. So far La Presse, hasn't. Third some bright wag thinks that winning the prize is the same as "giving winners an opportunity to advance their careers." Last year I railed about how the RBC Painting Competition was absolutely useless as a tool for career advancement. Last year Etienne Zack got about 727 hits on Google. This year he gets about 1,350. Last year, Dionne Simpson got about 420 hits. Now she gets about 824 (although I'm glad to see that she is exhibiting in New York). So it still looks like it is useless as a tool for career advancement.

Then could someone explain to me what proceedures were followed with regards to Luce Meunier's application? She is having an exhibition at Lilian Rodriguez's Gallery right now and until the 22nd of July, and appears to be represented by Ms. Rodriguez. Given how ethical the art world is, I want it in black and white from someone in the know before I think that Ms. Rodriguez recused herself when they were discussing Ms. Meunier's work.

[update June 29: I just received a response from Suzanne Willers of RBC, she writes,

Thank you for your email and interest in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Lilian Rodriguez did recuse herself from judging Luce Meunier's paintings. The decision to include Ms. Meunier was made by the two other jurors for Eastern Canada.

FYI - there are 16 artists but only 15 paintings. One of our Western semi-finalists are a duo - David Foy and Jennifer Saleik of Calgary.

I feel much better now.]

And then finally, since the Royal Bank doesn't think it all that important to show what the work looks like, click on the links to see examples of the work by the Montrealers.

Nicolas Grenier, and here too.
Dil Hildebrand, (I couldn't find any work by Mr. Hildebrand, sorry)
Daniel Langevin
Luce Meunier
and then there's Jonathan Johnson who is representing Halifax, but is also represented by a gallery here in Montreal. I like how he lived in Fredericton in 2005. Maybe Montreal actually has five short listed artists...