Kiwanga wins $100,000 Sobey art prize
Kapwani Kiwanga has won this year’s $100,000 Sobey Art Award.
The Hamilton, Ont.-born, Brantford-raised, and Paris, France-based artist received the prestigious prize Wednesday night during a ceremony in Ottawa.
She represented the Ontario region for the contemporary art honour.
Kiwanga’s body of work examines social and political themes such as colonization and the prison system.
The Sobey award is presented annually to a Canadian artist aged 40 or under who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within18 months of being nominated.
Kiwanga also won the inaugural $30,000 (U.S.) Frieze Artist Award this year.
The award was created by Frieze New York to execute an open-air installation on Randall’s Island during the Frieze New York fair, which ran from May 4 to 6.
The other four finalists receive $25,000 apiece, while the remaining 20 longlisted artists each receive $2,000.
This year’s other finalists were Mi’kmaq artist Jordan Bennett representing the Atlantic region and Jon Rafman of Quebec.
Representing the Prairies and the North is Joi T. Arcand from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, and Jeneen Frei Njootli is the finalist for the West Coast and the Yukon.
Works by all five nominees are being displayed in an exhibition running through Feb. 10 at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The Canadian Press and Star staff
Guitar virtuoso Clark dead at 85
Country star Roy Clark, the guitar virtuoso and singer who headlined the cornpone TV show Hee Haw for nearly a quarter century and was known for such hits as “Yesterday When I was Young” and “Honeymoon Feeling,” has died. He was 85. Publicist Jeremy Westby said Clark died Thursday due to complications from pneumonia at home in Tulsa, Okla. Clark was Hee Haw host or cohost for its entire 24-year run ending in 1993, with Buck Owens his best known co-host.
Clark played the guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica and other instruments. In 1976, he headlined a tour of the Soviet Union, breaking boundaries that were usually closed to Americans.
Over the years, he played at venues around the world: Carnegie Hall in New York, the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo, the Grand Palace in Brussels and the Rossiya Theatre in Moscow. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009. The Associated Press
Stapleton wins big at CMAs
Chris Stapleton won the most awards at the 2018 Country Music Association Awards and had the show’s best performance, almost capping a per- fect night. That was until Keith Urban surprisingly won the top prize — entertainer of the year — moments before the three-hour show wrapped Wednesday night.
Urban’s actress-wife, Nicole Kidman, was in tears as the singer walked onstage to collect the award in Nashville, Tennessee. “Baby girl, I love you so much,” he said. “I’m shocked beyond shocked.”
Urban beat Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney for the prize. Stapleton, however, cleaned house at the CMAs, winning four awards including male vocalist, song and single of the year. Kacey Musgraves, the only woman nominated for album of the year, won the prize for Golden Hour. The Associated Press
Amazon furor stops Quebec prize
A prestigious Quebec literary prize has been suspended amid public outcry over the announcement of online giant Amazon as the main sponsor.
An organizer of the Prix littéraire des collégians announced the decision this week after members of the public and the literary community denounced the multinational’s involvement.
The five finalists for the 2019 edition of the prize published a joint letter in Le Devoir expressing concern over what they called Amazon’s “extreme competition” and its detrimental effect on small booksellers.
Authors Karoline Georges, Kevin Lambert, Jean-Christophe Réhel, Lula Carballo and Dominique Fortier said Amazon’s involvement runs counter to the prize’s mission of promoting Quebec literature. The Canadian Press
Briefly
Amy Schumer says she’s been hospitalized for severe, second-trimester nausea and apologized to fans in Dallas for cancelling a standup show. She and her husband, Chris Fischer, announced in late October they were expecting their first child together.
á Kanye West has a new bromance brewing. The rapper took to Twitter Wednesday to share to his 28 million followers a karaoke session with none other than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Their song of choice: Backstreet Boys’ 1999 classic “I Want It That Way.” Star wire services