Get to know the 2025 recipients of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, June 15, 2025
Hi, Art!

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Hi, art lovers!
 
Still from concert footage of Jeremy Dutcher performing on stage. A person wearing a denim vest with frayed edges, holds a microphone adorned with a patterned scarf.

In this photo from the 2022 Polaris Music Prize gala, Jeremy Dutcher performs songs from his winning album Motewolonuwok. (CBC Music)
 
OMGGPAA! Stories about the 2025 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards dominated the site all week. Last night in Ottawa, the winners were feted at the National Arts Centre. As part of the celebrations, the NFB commissioned a series of video portraits which pay tribute to the recipients, and those shorts are now streaming on CBC Gem and the NFB website. So who’s in the Class of 2025? Actor Graham Greene; composer Denis Gougeon; super-producer Bob Ezrin; filmmaker Patrick Huard; arts leader Sandra Laronde; performance artist April Hubbard and musician Jeremy Dutcher.
 

Because we promised you eye candy ...
 
Photo of a mural on a brick building's exterior wall. It is a summery scene depicting two people of colour wearing matching pink brimmed hats. They stand close together in front of a pink car. They are flanked by tall tropical plants, tropical ruit. The background is a grid of pink and green. A mountain landscape of rainbow coloured hills can be seen far in the distance: depicted as a thin ribbon of horizon.

Zéh Palito
It’s the final day of Mural Festival in Montreal, and this wall by visiting artist Zéh Palito is among the colourful new works that have sprung up across the city. The mural’s title is We Swam Against Their Waves. (Where can you find it? Zéh posted the location on Instagram.) 
 
Artwork made with plasticine. It is a pattern of sliced fruit on a blue backdrop: watermelon, red apples, oranges, starfruit, kiwi.

Madeleine LeBrun
In my entirely subjective opinion, June is the best month for a Picnic — which happens to be the title of a group exhibition at Durand Coffee in Hamilton. Madeleine LeBrun (last seen here and here) is among the featured artists.
 
Detail of a painted carved wood sculpture. Suggests a human face emerging from leafy green fronds.

Graham Krenz
The Sylvie Bélanger Gallery in Windsor, Ont., closed for renovations last year, and it’s set to reopen next month with a solo exhibition from Graham Krenz: Wild Moon Cat. This is just a detail of one of Graham’s works (Basket). Here’s a closer look — or see it in person starting July 4.
 
Artwork in a 2D style. Depicts two abstracted male figures: one yellow, one red. They recline on a blue wavy backdrop. One faces the viewer; the other gazes at his companion.

Matthew Walton
A reminder that beach days are just around the corner. Clothing Optional by Matthew Walton. For readers in Toronto, Matthew’s opening a solo exhibition (Froot Loops) at Sixteen Eleven Studios this Thursday. 
 
 

You've got to see this
 
 
 
Two people in colourful motocross gear slide and tumble down a sand dune under clear blue skies.
Hans Ravn/The Bentway

Set 500 years in the future, this outdoor performance turns Toronto into an apocalyptic desert
 
And to put on the show, The Bentway’s built a mountain of sand under the Gardiner Expressway.
 
Still from a video game. An all blue tunnel is the landscape. A humanoid figure in a blue unitard is the focal point. They have short blue hair and glasses and scowl. A word bubble reads I gave up everything to work beside you.
Fellow Traveller

A small Canadian video game company won a Peabody Award
 
Sunset Visitor is an indie studio from Vancouver. It received the prestigious honour for the narrative game 1000xResist.
 
Theatre artist Cole Escola appears in a medium closeup screaming and looking at the camera. They wear an ornate off-the-shoulder gown and clutch a Tony Award . In the shadows behind them, various people applaud.

Jenny Anderson/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
 

Holding Space for Cole Escola and Tourmaline
 
Peter Knegt and Anne T. Donahue’s joint column is like a podcast that you scroll, and in this edition, they’re championing trans and non-binary excellence in pop culture.
 

Follow this artist
 
 
 
Instagram

Jonathan Busch
@lourdesthemerryvirgin
Triptych style illustration of the rapper Backxwash. She is seated smiling in the central element of the illustration and is flanked by two close-up portraits where her face is painted with white streaky eye makeup and a cross on her forehead.

Jonathan Busch
He’s our favourite Oilers-loving drag queen, and an illustrator. And in honour of last week’s Polaris Music Prize announcement, I’m sharing Jonathan’s Super Queeroes portrait of Backxwash. (The Montreal rapper won in 2020, and she’s back on the long list again this year.)
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!
 
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