OCAD University congratulates Dainesha Nugent-Palache on winning the New Generation Photography Award, and celebrates her talent. She is one of the three recipients of the 2021 award, presented by the National Gallery of Canada and Scotiabank.
With this win, Dainesha Nugent-Palache receives a cash prize of $10,000, and will have her work featured in Toronto during the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival from April 30 to October 3, 2021, and in Ottawa at the National Gallery of Canada in the fall of 2021.
These opportunities will bring her work to new audiences, and through a mentorship with the National Gallery of Canada’s curatorial team, Nugent-Palache will also participate in artist talks, exhibition tours, and educational programming. She was one of three winners selected from a longlist of 24 artists.
“The jury was very impressed with the calibre of work received,” said Andrea Kunard, Jury Chair and Associate Curator, Photographs. “Dainesha’s powerful portraits of women have a rich, painterly quality. She uses light in a sculptural way to mold and give presence to her subjects.”
Dainesha Nugent-Palache graduated from OCAD University’s Photography program where she was the recipient of the Dorothy Hoover Research Award, and the OCAD University Photography Faculty and Friends Award. Her work has been exhibited nationally through venues including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Calgary’s TRUCK Contemporary, and Gallery TPW, and internationally in New York, Vienna and Finland.
The New Generation Photography Award is unique, dedicated to honouring Canadian artists 35 years of age and under, and it is specific to lens-based art. It was launched in 2017 in recognition that along with the natural career boost to the winners and shortlist, in a country of Canada’s size, connecting diverse artists to each other through exhibitions, mentorships, and events can be as valuable as the prize itself.
IMAGE CREDIT: ‘Angaer’ by Dainesha Nugent-Palache, from Future Portraits