Pierre-Ayot Award

In honour of

Pierre Ayot (1943-1995) is a multidisciplinary artist whose body of work spanned photography, silkscreen printing, installations and videos. In 1966, he founded Graff, a centre for research, production and dissemination of contemporary art in Montréal. He also taught at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

Nature of the award

The Prix Pierre-Ayot was created in 1996 by Ville de Montréal, in partnership with the Contemporary Art Galleries Association (AGAC), to promote excellence among Montréal’s new visual arts creators, to foster the dissemination of the work of young artists’ in the city’s galleries and artist-run spaces, and to recognize the efforts of presenters to support up-and-coming artists.

The award includes:

• an exhibition of the finalists’ work;
• a $5,000 bursary for the winner;
• a $2,500 budget to organize and promote a one-person exhibition at an AGAC-member gallery or other exhibition venue in Montréal;
• the acquisition by Ville de Montréal of one of the winner’s works, for the municipal collection.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible, professional artists of 35 years or less as of September 22 2021 and under must:

• have no more than 10 years of professional artistic experience;
• have taken part in an exhibition in a gallery or artist-run space in the Ville de Montréal since October 2018;
• live in or work out of a studio located in Ville de Montréal.

Application file

The application file must be submitted by the artist, the artist-run space or the gallery representing the artist. In all cases, the artist and organization must sign the application form. When a gallery submits an application, a confirmation notice will be sent to the gallery and the artist.

Each application must include:

• the duly completed application form;
• up to 15 images (maximum 1 MB per image, jpeg);
• artist statement (maximum 500 words);
• artist’s CV (maximum 3 pages);
• optional: up to 2 video works of 5 minutes or less (Quicktime). If the video exceeds 5 minutes, it will be automatically deleted and not presented to the jury.

PDF format is required for all uploaded files.

Method of evaluation

All applications received will be reviewed by a panel of judges composed of five representatives chosen from the visual arts community for their expertise.

Call for applications

Registration is done online. Artists can access the contest form and rules, as well as submit their application online.

The deadline to submit an application is September 22 2021 at midnight.