By Stephen Weir

Just as the Caribbean Camera was going to press today, the winner of Canada’s most prestigious annual visual art award was announced. Tim Whiten, a Toronto based sculptor and painter has been awarded the 2022 Gershon Iskowitz Prize.
The Gershon Iskowitz Prize is presented annually to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to visual arts in Canada. He will receive a $75,000 cash award and an upcoming solo exhibition at the downtown Art Gallery of Ontario.
According to the AGO, “for more than fifty years, Tim Whiten has been creating personal and evocative works that unite the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and material realms. He has pursued a creative practice – one that includes gestural drawings, sculptures, performances, and installations – rooted in a deep understanding of spiritual cultural practices from around the world.”
Rather than an artist, Whiten considers himself an “image maker who also creates cultural objects. The process is what guides the work.” His choice of materials comes from everyday experiences and many of his objects are either tools or toys. These objects are meant to take the viewer to another place or another time.
Tim Whiten was born in Inkster, Michigan in 1941. He moved to Toronto in 1968 after serving in the US Army. After immigrating to Canada he taught in the Department of Visual Arts at York University for 39 years. Whiten’s range of work has extended from ritual-performance to sculpture. Since 1962, his work has been presented in exhibitions throughout North America and internationally.

Max Dean, a member of the 2022 Prize jury, spoke to both Whiten’s long-term commitment and outstanding involvement. “One is at first taken in by the material, but the content of the work transcends.”
Jurors for the 2022 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO were: artist and recipient of the 2005 Gershon Iskowitz Prize, Max Dean; Michelle Jacques, Head of Collections/Exhibitions & Chief Curator, Remai Modern; Catherine Crowston, Director of the Art Gallery of Alberta (Iskowitz Foundation Director); Gerald McMaster, artist and Director of Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge at OCADU (Iskowitz Foundation Director); and Stephan Jost, Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario (Iskowitz Foundation Director).
Tim Whiten is represented by the Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto. More details about Tim Whiten’s exhibition at the AGO in 2025 will be announced as they become available.