Artistic duo Cozic among GG winners

Artistic duo Cozic is among the eight winners of the $25,000 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Yvon Cozic and Monic Brassard prefer to be known as a singular artist. The collaborators are both from Sainte-Anne-de-la-Rochelle, Que.

Together, they are one of several recipients of a lifetime artistic achievement award.

Their self-proclaimed two-headed, four-handed artist uses found objects to create new works.

Others being recognized for their body of work include Newfoundland environmental artist Marlene Creates and Toronto-based multimedia artists Andrew James Paterson and Stephen Andrews.

Two of the recipients also share a surprising connection: Toronto-based Indo-Canadian filmmaker Ali Kazimi made a documentary in 1997 about his fellow lifetime honouree, Iroquois photographer Jeff Thomas, who lives in Ottawa.

Glass artist Susan Edgerley of Val-Morin, Que., won the Saidye Bronfman Award and will have some of her works acquired by the Canadian Museum of History for its permanent collection. Lee-Ann Martin, an independent curator of Indigenous art based in Carp, Ont., will receive the award for outstanding contribution.

Gov. Gen. Julie Payette will host an awards ceremony at Rideau Hall on March 28. Later that day, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa will hold a public viewing of an exhibition of the winners’ works, which is set to run until Aug. 5, 2019.

The Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts are funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Independent peer juries select the winners, who each receive $25,000.