Painter and queer artist Charlotte Perry (BFA 2025) is the recipient of the 2025 NSCAD Student Art Award.
The jury selected Perry from a pool of nine Student Art Award finalists for her work, The Cycle. The announcement was made on Thursday, April 24, at a public gala reception and exhibition at the Anna Leonowens Gallery.
“Winning this award feels like all of my struggles and all the work I’ve put into this painting has paid off,” says Perry. “I hope others can resonate with how mental health is such a huge subject and we’re only just scratching the surface.”
This year’s jury included Alex Livingston, former NSCAD painting faculty; Michael McCormack, Assistant Curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; and Lindsay Cory, Community Developer – Public Art for the Halifax Regional Municipality.
The jurors found Perry’s work to be powerful, compelling, and formally innovative.
“[Perry] courageously approaches a multiplicity of psychological experiences, ranging from sorrow to elation. While very personal, the visually innovative and compositionally playful depictions engage many interpretations,” they wrote in a jury statement.
‘SUCH A COURAGEOUS AND BOLD WORK’
Jury member Michael McCormack was particularly impressed by Perry’s glazing technique, noting that it gave an “intergalactic feel,” which enhanced the sense of an out-of-body experience.
“I felt it was such a courageous and bold work that walked the line between the inner and outer feelings that we have, and are sometimes uncomfortable with,” he says. “It was a well-executed piece, and really hard to accomplish a monochromatic work in painting that is done in a way that is engaging and multi-layered.”
The jury also gave an honourable mention to Labrador Inuit artist Chris Sampson’s Warning, for his “impactful and stirring” analysis of racial slurs as a form of colonial acceptance.
NSCAD’s acting president Jana Macalik says she was thrilled to see so many members of the NSCAD community—and Nova Scotia’s cultural community—come to celebrate these emerging artists together.
“For more than 15 years, the Student Art Award has been the cornerstone of our end-of-year celebrations,” says Macalik. “This time of year is magical at an art and design university […] and I am so pleased to see so many faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of our community here to celebrate and support our talented students.”
ABOUT THE CYCLE
Perry’s painting, The Cycle, is a four-by-four-foot, monochrome blue oil painting depicting three distorted faces in the throes of hysteria, and a nude figure in the middle of a cartwheel. The artwork acts as a visual representation of the intense feeling of mania, typically followed by a deep sorrow when someone is struggling with mental health—an experience Perry is intimately familiar with.
“My paintings are very specific to my experience,” says Perry. “If it wasn’t a self-portraiture, I don’t think it would have had that same level of vulnerability. It’s my own face, my own body, and my own experiences.
“I really wanted the painting to visually explain what those experiences are like; it can be beautiful, but it can also be very scary,” she says.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The grand prize awarded to Perry includes a $5,000 purchase prize for their submission, which now becomes part of NSCAD’s permanent collection.
The remaining eight finalists each receive $1,000 for their entries and the recognition of being the top in their respective disciplines. They are:
- Ceramics: Audrey O’Neil, Interdimensional Hunting Relics
- Printmaking: Chris Sampson, Warning
- Film: Deirdre Sokolowska, “Annie, Are You OK?”
- Sculpture: Grace Hirsch, I See You
- Jewellery: Jessica Li, Boundless
- Photography: Melissa Naef, Tailings
- Fashion/Textiles: Oscar Jarsky, To Be Held
- Drawing: Yuting Song, Here Lies a Cosmos of Everlasting Tales