The latest Canadian recipient of the coveted Glenfiddich Artist Residency was recently announced at an event in Toronto. It was the 19th year that the residency, which takes place over three months in the Scottish highlands near Dufftown, was awarded in Canada.
Each year a select group of artists chosen from all over the world is invited to live and work in the scenic distillery. They are chosen based on a proposal that incorporates both their artistic practice and the place itself.
In the crowd at the announcement event, there were artists like Jon Sasaki, whose submission won in 2015. Like Sasaki and many others, the 2024 recipient, Julie Forgues, fell in love with the place, and returned to Glenfiddich after the residency was over, spending a total of about 10 months at the distillery. Many described the experience as career altering and life-changing, and it made for a familial atmosphere.
Dave Dyment was the 2008 Canadian Artists in Residence Prize recipient, and he’s been a member of the selection jury panel for the program ever since. “It was a genuinely life altering experience,” he said in his remarks.
The Glenfiddich distillery is still owned by the Grant-Gordon family after five generations. The artist residency program grew out of the family’s desire to start an art collection. Instead of buying from galleries and auctions, they wanted to invite the artists to create on their gorgeous property and historic facilities, and foster a sense of community with them.
Andy Fairgrieve has been the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Program Curator since its inception in 2002. “It’s always a great way to bring back a community of friends,” he said at the Toronto event on April 15. “It’s really just an inspiring place.”
Here’s a look at the Canadian artists in the program in 2024 and 2025.
“Last year, I couldn’t believe that I was here, that I was chosen,” said artist Julie Forgues at the announcement reception.
Julie Forgues is based in New Brunswick. She obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Université de Moncton, followed by a master’s degree from Carleton University. Today, she is a professor of photography in the Department of Visual Arts at the Université de Moncton, and was head of the department from 2016 until 2023. Her work has been widely exhibited, and she has participated in other residencies in in China, Ireland, and Japan.
In her artist’s statement, she says, “Through the photographic image, I explore how the in-between in a landscape is a place in itself, a blurry lieu between what was (space) and what will be (place).”
That essentially describes her approach to the Glenfiddich residency, which was based on the idea of the “angel’s share”. That phrase refers to the combination of alcohol and water that escapes from the whiskey barrel as the spirits age. It’s about 1% or 2% in a cool climate, like that of Scotland. Her series, titled Leave some for the angels, leave some to the mercy of stillness, imagines what form that escaping essence would take.
To that end, she created a series of gelatin silver prints developed onto Grant bottles, and in a second series, nailed on pieces of charred whisky barrel wood.
“The images themselves were developed with whisky,” she explains. Specifically, Glenfiddich 12.
The fascinatingly detailed images capture the historic distillery, its machinery and environment.
On reaching the distillery, where artists live in their own cabins, and are supplied with materials to use in their work, Julie’s first thought was to get acquainted with the place. She says she’d take walks around the premises in the evenings after the workers had gone home.
“Step by step, it became my place.” The images capture its essence. “What I wanted to transpose with these [images] are the stories, the histories.”
As she points out, the barrels themselves have a kind of memory; the whiskies distilled for 12, 18, 21 years and beyond leave their own traces in the wood.
And, it seems, the place and experience left a mark on her too.
“I felt like I left a piece of myself in Scotland.”
Born in Redruth, UK, artist Alex Morrison lives and works in Vancouver, where he was raised. His work has been widely exhibited throughout British Columbia, at White Columns (New York), La Plage (Paris), and the Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff), among others. His drawings, paintings, videos, sculptures and installations have been collected by the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Museum Abteiberg (Germany), Zabludowicz Collection (London), and other public and private collections.
His artistic practice is concerned with subcultures, domestic architecture and its history, civic spaces, activism, rebellion, and avant-garde aesthetics, and often critques Modernism.
In his introduction, Andy Fairgrieve mentioned that he’d been drawn to the visuals included with Morrison’s proposal. Incidentally, it was the second time that Morrison had applied for the residency. Fairgrieve stated that it was a mark of the quality of the submissions they receive, and the difficulty the judges can have in making their final decisions.
Fine art, subculture, and folk idioms are often combined in his works. Morrison’s proposal revolves around the idea of humanism in an industrial setting, pinpointing specific elements of the distillery’s architecture.
His plans call for an architectural design case study to explore the dual nature of some of the specific features of the distillery, those that have a functional as well as a decorative purpose, including the rooftop pagodas designed by architect Charles Doig, creator of the Doig Ventilator (1889). His Ventilator system was adopted by the local distilleries in Speyside.
Morrison’s intended result is to create a design with a repeating pattern that could be used for textiles, wallpaper or packaging design. In his remarks, he talked about bridging the gap between art and branding, using some of the Glenfiddich symbolism.
“I’m just excited about what we can do together,” he said of his coming adventure.
The parameters of the program stipulate that the proposed work integrates some aspect of the Glenfiddich distillery and environment, but it’s a mistake to focus solely on that, as Julie Forgues explains.
“Think about an idea that is embedded in your practice,” she advises future candidates. Then, link your practice to the place.
“Whatever happens, it’s always interesting,” Andy Fairgrieve remarked.
Visual artists can watch out for applications for the 2026 Artists in Residence program, which are scheduled to open in December 2025.
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