In collaboration with CONTACT, four Canadian photographers were invited to capture a new BMW using their own distinctive vision. These prints are the latest collection for the BMW Art Auction benefiting the Air Canada Foundation.

CONTACT and BMW would like to thank the photographers Jesse Louttit, Javier Lovera, Zach Slootsky, and Christopher Stevenson for making this project an enormous success.

Benefiting the Air Canada Foundation. For over 35 years BMW has been blurring the line between automobiles and art.

Kids' Horizons works in partnership with charities and non-profit organizations to offer effective programs that make a difference in the lives of young Canadians. Kids' Horizons is especially focused on the health of Canadian youth, alleviating child poverty, and answering the wishes of seriously ill children.

To learn more, view the collection, and make your bid visit bmw.ca/art.

Auction closes November 1, 2012.

The BMW prize of $5,000 acknowledges an outstanding exhibition in CONTACT each year. A jury will consider both Open and Featured exhibitions and will base their decision on the caliber and concept of the work, the curatorial vision, and the overall impact of the exhibition.

We are pleased to have Michael Itkoff and Dr. Thierry Gervais, as this year’s judges. The announcement will be made at the BMW Night, an exclusive engagement on May 17.

Michael Itkoff, photographer, educator and a Founding Editor of Daylight Magazine, received his BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A. in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP/Bard. Michael’s photographs have appeared on the covers of Orion, Katalog, Next American City and Philadelphia Weekly and he has written for the NYTimes Lens blog, Art Asia Pacific, Nueva Luz, Conscientious blog and the Forward. Michael was the recipient of the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism (2006), a Creative Artists Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Arts Council (2007), and a Puffin Foundation Grant (2008). Michael’s monograph Street Portraits was published by Charta Editions in 2009.

Dr. Thierry Gervais is a Researcher in Residence at the Ryerson Image Centre (Toronto, Canada). He teaches history of photography at Ryerson University, and is pursuing research about the use of photography in magazines and the first photoreporters. He is the Editor in Chief of Études photographiques and published La photographie. Histoire, technique, presse, art (with Gaëlle Morel, Larousse, 2008). He was the curator of the exhibition "Léon Gimpel. Les audaces d’un photographe" at the Musée d’Orsay (Paris), in 2008. He is currently working on the exhibition "Vues d'en haut" for the Pompidou Centre in Paris with Contemporary Art Curator Angela Lampe (2013) and on an exhibition about James H. Hare and W. Eugene Smith, which will be shown at the Ryerson Image Centre in 2014.

2011 Winner
Andrew Wright was presented with this inaugural award in 2011. Wright’s innovative body of work entitled CORONAE presented at Peak Gallery continues his investigation into photographic technologies by interrogating how they depict environments and the world around us. This series of large-scale works contributes to contemporary discourses on cameraless photography, challenging conventional understandings about materials, procedures, and functions.

Thank you to the 2011 jury Sheyi Bankale, Editor and Founder, Next Level Magazine, London, UK and David Liss, Artistic Director & Curator, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto.
 

BMW has been a long time supporter of arts and culture around the world. “From the acclaimed BMW Art Car program, to the upcoming BMW Guggenheim Lab, we are proud to support photography here in Canada”, says Marc Belcourt, Brand Communications Manager for BMW Group Canada. “Through the BMW Exhibition Prize, we are able to recognize the most impactful exhibition within the CONTACT festival. We congratulate Mr. Wright on his work and commend him for his use of innovation and technology to push the boundaries of convention.”