Today, the Canada Council for the Arts today announced the 2015 winners of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Now in its 15th year, the awards honor outstanding career achievement in the visual and media arts, awarding each recipient a $25,000 cash prize.

The eight winners include curator Louise Déry, presented with the Outstanding Contribution Award; six visual artists, including Mexican-Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer; and one winner in fine craft, Paul McClure, recognized for his excellence in jewelry making with the Saidye Bronfman award.

“This year’s winners are profoundly shaping Canada’s cultural identity,” said Simon Brault, Canada Council for the Arts director and CEO, in a statement. “We applaud their innovative and powerful work, which invites us to question the state of our world and our own personal destinies in ways that we never would have imagined.”

“The Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts were established 15 years ago to recognize Canada’s leading visual artists and arts supporters,” added governor General David Johnston. “This year’s laureates remind us once again of the remarkable talent, vision and diversity in modern Canadian art. I look forward to meeting and congratulating them in person.”

The prize is funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, and this year’s jury for the awards consisted of Lucie-Clair Chan, Pierre Dorion, Lee-Ann Martin, Susan McEachern, and Gerald Saul.

The 2015 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts winners:

Louise Déry, curator, Montreal (Outstanding Contribution Award)
Paul McClure, jewellery artist, Toronto (Saidye Bronfman Award)
Robert Houle, visual artist, Toronto
Micah Lexier, visual artist, Toronto
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, media artist, Montreal
Sandra Meigs, painter, Victoria
Rober Racine, visual artist, writer and composer, Montreal
Reva Stone, new media artist, Winnipeg

For more artnet News coverage of art awards see:

• Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Awards $400,000 in Artist as Activist Grants
• Wolfgang Tillmans Wins 2015 Hasselblad Photography Award
• Trisha Donnelly, Camille Henrot, Among Absolut Art Award Finalists