Artist Luanne Martineau. Image: Joy Poliquin.

Victoria, BC-based artist Luanne Martineau will be honoured with a $12,000 VIVA award for achievement in the visual arts on May 15th in Vancouver.

The VIVA (Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts) awards are given annually to two mid-career British Columbia artists who have demonstrated strong creative potential and a long-term commitment to their craft.

Luanne Martineau, Sweetie, 2005. Image: Kevin Baer/banffcentre.ca

Martineau’s work will be featured in La Biennale de Montre?al: Crack the Sky, curated by Wayne Baerwaldt and opening May 10th, 2007. Her special edition book, FREAKOUT (Temporal Bodies), which includes a hand felted cover by the artist, will be launched for the Biennial. The book brings Martineau’s recent work together with eight texts ranging from German surrealist Hannah Hoch, Oscar Wilde and Louis Bourgeois to Georges Batille and Woody Allen.

Her major work Parasite Buttress (2005) will be shown in a group exhibition at Tre?panierBaer Gallery, Calgary opening late in May.

In February, Martineau took part in a panel discussion at a symposium titled Informal Architecture at the Tate Modern in London.

Luanne Martineau, Portrait, 2006. Image: jessicabradleyartprojects.com

Her work will be featured in a follow up exhibition opening June 22 at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff.

Martineau’s work was recently featured in an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria titled Peculiar Culture: The Contemporary Baroque.

Luanne Martineau, Lubber, 2003. Image: Kevin Baer/banffcentre.ca