Category Archives: awards

Canada Council Art Bank

Mark Stebbins, Heap, 2010, 16 x 20", collection of Canada Council Art Bank

My 2010 piece Heap has been purchased by the Canada Council Art Bank as part of its 2011 purchases of work by 52 Canadian artists. The Canada Council Art Bank, with approximately 17,500 works, has the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art in the world.

Click here for the full Art Bank news release, or read more below.


Continue reading →

Best of 2010 Exhibition: Award Winners from the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition

My piece Nexuses is featured in the exhibition Best of 2010 at the FCP Gallery in Toronto from January 17 to February 25, 2011.

An opening reception will take place on Thursday, January 20 from 6 to 8 pm. All are welcome to attend!

BEST of 2010 features the work of the award winners from the 2010 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. My work was awarded both Best in Show and Best in Drawing Category at last summer’s exhibition.

The FCP Gallery is located at 100 King Street West, Toronto in First Canadian Place. Click here for a map to the gallery location in the building.

FCP Gallery hours will vary during the exhibition so it is recommended that you contact the TOAE office (416-408-2754) or FCP Gallery for the public viewing schedule.

For more information about the work of the 2010 award winners, please visit www.torontooutdoorart.org

Note: Nexuses was chosen as the feature image for the exhibition postcard (see left) and all other exhibition promotional material.

Article in Halifax Chronicle Herald

This article on my art appears in today’s Halifax Chronicle Herald: http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1206956.html

UPDATE (2010-11-03): A PDF version of the article is available here.  The above link now requires an account with the newspaper for access.

Honourable Mention in 2010 RBC Canadian Painting Competition

I’m very happy to announce that I received an Honourable Mention in this year’s RBC Canadian Painting Competition.  This award includes a $15,000 prize as well as RBC’s acquisition of my work, Data Centres, for the bank’s collection. See below for more information about the competition, the exhibition tour and the three winners.

RBC Press release (English version):

TORONTO, Sept. 30 /CNW/ – RBC, with the support of the Canadian Art Foundation, today announced Alexis Lavoie from Montréal as the national winner of the 12th annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition for his work entitled Restants. Alexis was awarded a $25,000 prize as the national winner.

“Each year the RBC Canadian Painting Competition showcases the extraordinary talent of emerging artists from across Canada,” said Gay Mitchell, deputy chairman, RBC Wealth Management. “RBC is honoured to play a role in raising the awareness and appreciation of visual arts in this country and provide a forum for artists to display their work.”

The winners were chosen from more than 600 works submitted by artists from across the country. The two honourable mentions were given to Jon Reed from Toronto for his work Stato di Impotenza and Mark Stebbins from Toronto for his work Data Centers. Jon and Mark were each awarded a$15,000 prize for their work. Continue reading →

Best in Show and Best in Drawing @ Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition!

I had a fantastic weekend at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition! It was a pleasure to meet and talk with so many interesting people with passion for the visual arts. Thank you to everyone who stopped by my booth!

To top it off, on Saturday evening I was awarded both Best in the Drawing Category as well as Best in Show! With over 400 exhibiting artists and very strong artwork throughout the exhibition, the Best in Show award is a real honour.

Special thanks to the prize donors — TD Canada Trust (Best in Show) and The Globe and Mail (Best in Drawing) — all of the TOAE staff and volunteers, as well as my generous booth helpers, Paul, Kathleen and Anne.

First Place Award at Sunnyside Art Fair

My weekend at the Sunnyside Beach Juried Art Show & Sale (May 28-30) was a success.  The fair was well organized, the location was beautiful and the weather was perfect. Attendance and sales were steady.

At the awards ceremony on Saturday it was announced that I had been chosen to receive the Dr. W. Zurowski First Place Award For Outstanding Artist, a $1000 cash prize. The jurors gave the following comments about my work:

“In a digital environment, Mark’s technologically-inflected imagery is current and compelling, while remaining highly accessible to a broad audience. He has a profound understanding of colour and pattern. The works are exquisitely handcrafted and visually exciting. Mark Stebbins’ works are singularly original in scope and execution.”

This year’s jury consisted of Mary Sue Rankin (Owner/Director, Edward Day Gallery), Betty Ann Jordan (Art Critic and Writer/Founder, Art In Site and Toronto Art Tours), Phil Anderson (Director/Curator, Gallery 1313), Dera Singer (Art Collector) and Grazyna Kabat (Art Consultant/Art Collector).

Here is the press release (pdf) issued by the show organizers, which is also currently posted on the homepage of their website.

Photo credit: Peter Bacler

Photo credit: Peter Bacler

Third Prize in “Drawing 2010” exhibition at John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto

A new work of mine, Data Centres (2010), has been awarded the Third Prize in the Drawing 2010 exhibition at John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto.  The exhibition will be on display until February 26.

Drawing 2010 is a juried show that attracts emerging and established artists from across the Province of Ontario. The jurors for this 11th juried exhibition were Todd Tremeer, artist/educator and a recipient of the Joseph Plaskett Award (2007); Robert Malinowski, artist and 1st Prize Winner, DRAWING 2009; and Gillian Reddyhoff, Curator of the Government of Ontario’s Art Collection. (from airdgallery.org)

More information can be found on the John B. Aird Gallery website: airdgallery.org

Highlights of 2009

2009 was a busy and successful year. Here is a brief round-up of the news highlights of the past year.

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Mayor’s Award of Distinction, Contemporary Visual Art, Halifax Regional Municipality

Modeled after the national RBC Painting Competition, this competition was open to emerging artists in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), and was juried by a panel of regional visual arts professionals.

An exhibition of five short-listed candidates for this award took place from April to June 2009 at the HRM City Hall. My pieces Data Mine, Core and Bouquet were exhibited along with pieces by four other candidates, Daniel Hutchinson, Jonathan Johnson, Ivan Murphy and Hannah Minzloff.

At the conclusion of the exhibition, it was announced that I had been selected as the winner of the $10,000 first place award, with Daniel Hutchinson and Jonathan Johnson receiving honourable mention prizes of $5000 each.  As part of the award, the city purchased Data Mine, along with pieces by Hutchinson and Johnson, for the municipal permanent collection.

See also DalNews June 30, 2009.

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Emerging Artist of the Year, 2009, Visual Arts Nova Scotia

In October 2009 I received the Emerging Artist of the Year award from Visual Arts Nova Scotia (VANS). The award “recognizes an emerging artist who, in the early stages of his career, demonstrates exceptional talent and accomplishments as well as a unique artistic expression and a commitment to the arts.”

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Jurors’ Choice Award for piece in National Juried Drawing Exhibition, White Water Gallery

In November 2009, my pieces Data Cluster 3 and Replica were included in the First Annual National Juried Drawing Exhibition at the White Water Gallery in North Bay, Ontario. I received a Jurors’ Choice Award for Data Cluster 3. The exhibition was juried by Amanda Burk and Derek Liddington and was on display from November 14 to December 12, 2009. A catalogue is forthcoming.

Juror Amanda Burk commented on my work on her website, calling Data Cluster 3 an “intense and wonderfully involving piece.” Says Burk, “From the moment I unpacked his colourful meticulous pieces, I couldn’t take my eyes off them.”