To mark its 10th anniversary, the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts has named two winners instead of one this year: octagenarian artists Gathie Falk and Takao Tanabe.

Falk is a Vancouver painter, ceramic and papier mache sculptor, and performance artist known for focusing on objects and activites of everyday life, from sculpted dresses to ceramic apples. She holds the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia, and the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts.

Landscape painter Tanabe, born here and trained in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, also has been a recipient of all three of those distinctions, and has been shown extensively here and abroad. His moody paintings have often captured West Coast seascapes, but also images from his travels the world, in a variety of styles.

The artists will receive their award on April 4th in the Great Hall of the BC Law Courts building.

Via the prize, the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts grants $30,000 annually to a senior British Columbia artist, selected by an independent jury. Past winners include Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham, and Liz Magor.

Meanwhile, abstract painter and Emily Carr University instructor Elizabeth McIntosh is this year’s winner of the VIVA Award, presented by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts to recognize BC artists who demonstrate exceptional creative ability and commitment. And Helga Pakasaar (who has curated such shows as 1983: Camera Art in Vancouver and Not Necessarily In That Order) and Presentation House Gallery have earned the Alvin Balkind Curator’s Prize. Both of these awards will be handed out at the April 4 event as well.