Jerry-Faye Flatt | Matt Cripps Reps New Brunswick in BMO 1st Art! Win
Matt Cripps was on a beach in St. Martins in July when he got an exciting phone call: he had been chosen as the New Brunswick winner for the BMO 1st Art! competition - and then his phone died. After waiting in the car for a half hour for it to charge, he was able to confirm the details, including the fact that he had to remain silent about it for another few months. On Sept. 15, Matt was able to share the news publicly.
The BMO 1st Art! award recognizes visual art graduates across Canada, with a prize going to an artist from each Canadian province and territory. Every year, students who are completing their undergraduate art program are chosen by their schools to submit work to the competition. Matt was recommended by the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, who have presented many exceptional winning candidates in recent years.
2020 - Matt Cripps, Ceramics
2017 - Emily Blair, Textiles
2016 - Jennifer McInnis-Wharton, Ceramics
2014 - Sandra Racine, Indigenous Visual Arts
2010 - Celine Gorham, Textiles
2009 - Brownyn Gallagher, Textiles
2008 - Cheryl Ryan, Textiles
2006 - Shanie Stozek, Ceramics
2004 - Maryjane Gorham, Photography
Matt’s winning piece is called 4 Crawling Vases. (Photo: Hailley Fayle)
“I really did put a lot of work into that piece, so it was really cool to see that it was acknowledged, and all the work that went into it was well worth it,” Matt said.
And work it was indeed. 4 Crawling Vases is a series he created for the 2019 NBCCD Diploma Exhibition at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (BAG). It consequently became a part of the NBCCD permanent collection. Matt wanted to make something unique because he didn’t know if he was going to have the opportunity to showcase his work in the BAG again.
“If I was going to do something, I wanted to do something big, like physically big.”
His ceramics instructor, Elizabeth Demerson, told him he had four square feet to work with. When Matt asked how tall he had, she told him “The ceiling.”
He took that literally.
“I went as tall as I could,” he said.
Matt created three giant vases: They all measure just under the footage at 8ft, 6ft, and 4ft, and are white, pink, and green respectively. They’re all finished with Matt’s signature crawling glaze.
Each piece is finished with Matt’s signature crawling glaze. (Photo: Hailley Fayle)
The pieces itself were made in two feet sections, which were then stacked into each other.
“Kind of like a lid would sit on a pot. Each piece kind of just fits on top of each other.”
In Matt’s artist statement, he explains why it’s called 4 Crawling Vases, when there’s only three pieces in total. It “allows the shoes of the fourth Crawling Vase to be filled by the viewer. The work is only complete when it is confronted and experienced,” it says.
When I confronted Matt’s pieces in the hall at NBCCD, they startled me. Their presence is all-consuming, with two of the three towering over me (which isn’t hard at 5’2”). As a viewer I had no choice but to stop and admire the texture, the detail, and the fact they had been somehow constructed in pieces. Each vase has a certain organic look, and appears certainly, as if it has slowly crawled out of the ground yet hardened into perfection. They look ancient, but well kept. They appear natural, but are elegant.
Matt was awarded $7,500 and will be published in the Canadian Art Magazine. In a pre-COVID-19 era, each winning piece from across Canada would be shown in a physical exhibition in Ontario, but this year, the exhibit can be viewed online.
Matt said a lot of people have reached out to congratulate him. He hopes he’s able to capitalize on this momentum.
“I think a big thing to be successful in this field is you got to take your momentum and run with it. . .I’m hoping to go with this and maybe get my name out there more nationally, and get a little more recognition that way.”
CreatedHere will publish a more in-depth piece on one of Matt’s most recent works, 5 Crackling Vases, next week.