We think that you will be excited to meet our 2023 jurists, Krys Carruthers, Gavin Gunter and Jeff Nye
Krys Carruthers is a long-time high school visual arts teacher, Visual Arts Department Head, Arts Huron coordinator and Regional Chair for Visual Arts in the York Region Board of Education. She has been a member of the Newmarket Group of Artists for many years. Her art practice includes painting, encaustic, dry transfer and mixed media techniques, and metalwork/jewellery. She can be found on Instagram @six.teenfoxes
Jeff Nye is a Canadian artist, writer, teacher, and curator. Jeff has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with Distinction from Concordia University in Montreal (1998) and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Regina (2007). His paintings and multimedia installations have been exhibited in public galleries across the country. He has curated exhibitions for the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Dunlop Art Gallery, and Last Mountain Lake Cultural Centre. He has also instructed studio art, exhibition design, and art history classes at First Nations University of Canada, University of Regina, and Georgian College.
Jeff has received several distinctions and awards for his work, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Gavin Gunter is a self-taught abstract-expressionist painter and former art collector who has exhibited internationally and whose artwork is included in prominent private and corporate collections. A Jamaican by birth, he is also a trained geologist and a former President of the Geological Society of Jamaica. He has a passion for social justice and his Christian faith. Since 2018, he has principally engaged in photography, concentrating on a wide variety of themes but principally concerned with the positive portrayal of Black and racialized peoples. He currently serves as a volunteer photographer for the Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association (NACCA).