TORONTO (March 23, 2026)—The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation is pleased to announce LAWRENCE PAUL YUXWELUPTUN as the recipient of the 2025 GERSHON ISKOWITZ PRIZE. The $75,000 award is presented annually to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to the visual arts in Canada. In addition to the Prize, the Foundation will generously support a solo exhibition of his work at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in February 2027.
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is an artist and activist based in Vancouver who is known for combining traditional Coast Salish cosmology and motifs with formal tropes borrowed from surrealism and pop art. The resulting grand-scale paintings address contemporary political urgencies, including paying witness to the horrors of colonial violence, increasing respect for the land and environmental care, and demanding justice and sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples. His paintings are striking for their use of acrid tones—suggesting toxicity, post-apocalyptic ruin, and natural worlds sickened by industrial exploitation. These fantastical landscapes are populated by masked figures whose geometry exemplifies an artistic philosophy that he dubs “Ovoidism.” Drawing lessons from the recurring oval forms in Northwest Coast designs, he has built his own visual language in which these shapes may embody limbs, branches, eyes, clouds, teeth, mountains, or fish.
The jury for the 2025 Gershon Iskowitz Prize was composed of guest jurors Crystal Mowry (Director of Programs at the MacKenzie Art Gallery) and Adelina Vlas (Artistic Director, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery) alongside Gershon Iskowitz Foundation members Sarah Milroy (Executive Director and Chief Curator, McMichael Canadian Art Collection) and Stephan Jost (Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario).
2025 Jury Member Adelina Vlas notes: “Through his paintings, the artist seeks to amplify the voice of communities that have been relegated to the reduced confines of reservations and portray not only the realities of the contemporary Indigenous condition but also visions of possible futures.”
A highly regarded figure, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s work has had a profound impact on Canadian visual culture and the increased visibility of Indigenous Contemporary Art internationally. Lauded as a “unique and persistent voice for change” when he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2019, the artist continues to innovate within his form, connecting his role as an artist to the larger project of Indigenous resilience and cultural recovery.
ABOUT LAWRENCE PAUL YUXWELUPTUN
Born in Kamloops, BC, in 1957, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is of Cowichan (Hul’q’umi’num Coast Salish) on his father’s side and Okanagan (Syilx) heritage on his mother’s. As a child, he attended one of the many Canadian Indian residential schools designed to suppress Indigenous cultural practice. His political consciousness is rooted in a family history of Indigenous rights advocacy. Yuxweluptun’s artwork has been displayed in numerous international group and solo exhibitions, including Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada in 2013, as well as the first exhibition of contemporary First Nations art held in that same institution in 1992, titled Land, Spirit, Power. In 1998, Yuxweluptun was the recipient of the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts (VIVA) Award. He was also honoured in 2013 with a prestigious Fellowship at the Eitelijorg Musem of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, which was accompanied by an exhibition, a publication, and the entry of his artwork into the museum’s permanent collection. He earned a BFA in 1983, and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He lives and works in Vancouver, where he is represented by Macaulay + Co. Fine Art.
ABOUT THE GERSHON ISKOWITZ FOUNDATION
The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation is a private charitable foundation established in 1986 through the generosity of painter Gershon Iskowitz (1921–1988). Iskowitz recognized the importance of grants in the development of artists in Canada, in particular acknowledging that a grant from the Canada Council in 1967 gave him the freedom to create his distinctive style. Iskowitz’s works are held in public and private collections across Canada and abroad. The Foundation’s principal activity is the designation of the Prize which is unique in that one can neither apply nor be nominated. A second distinct characteristic which many of the recipients have commented on is that the Prize is an important example of an artist supporting other artists. Iskowitz himself was actively involved in designating the Prize in its first years; after his death this responsibility passed to juries composed of trustees of the Foundation and invited artists and curators. The achievements of the first 20 years of the Foundation and the Prize are detailed in The Gershon Iskowitz Prize 1986–2006; the work of subsequent winners is included on the Foundation’s web site, www.iskowitzfoundation.ca
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
The AGO is home to Gershon Iskowitz’s archives and an important collection of his paintings. At the 20-year mark of the Prize, the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation formed a partnership with the AGO to raise awareness of the Prize, to highlight the significance of the artists honoured and enhance appreciation of Canadian contemporary art. Since 2016, the Foundation has extended the Prize by supporting a solo exhibition of the artist’s work at the AGO.
ABOUT THE AGO
Located in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately one million visitors annually. The AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists and European masterpieces. The AGO presents wide-ranging exhibitions and programs, including solo exhibitions and acquisitions by diverse and underrepresented artists from around the world. The AGO is embarking on the seventh expansion it has undertaken since the museum was founded in 1900. When completed, the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary collection. With its groundbreaking Annual Pass program, the AGO is one of the most affordable and accessible attractions in the GTA. Visit ago.ca to learn more.
The AGO is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, and generous contributions from AGO Members, donors, and private-sector partners.
Sarah Robayo Sheridan
Executive Director, Gershon Iskowitz Foundation
sarah@artsandletters.ca
Andrea-Jo Wilson
Manager, Public Relations
Andrea-Jo.Wilson@ago.ca