Patrick Cruz, a master of fine art (MFA) student, won the 2015 RBC Canadian Painting Competition. The $25,000-prize celebrates promising new Canadian visual artists. It’s the second year in a row that the winner has had a U of G connection.

Cruz’s painting, Time allergy, was selected from more than 600 Canadian entries by a judging panel.

The jury, made up of some of Canada’s top artists, art directors, curators and art critics, commended Cruz on his “brave approach, maximalist esthetic and wild graphic sensibility.”

Cruz immigrated to Canada 10 years ago from the Philippines, and has said that the process inspired him to examine notions of diaspora, displacement and cultural identity.

His painting will become part of RBC’s corporate art collection, which also includes a painting by U of G graduate Tiziana La Melia, the 2014 RBC winner.

Photo: Dana Bellamy, The Ontarion

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