Now in its 16th year, the C New Critics Award is designed to help identify, develop, and promote the work of emerging art critics, and to encourage creative discourse on current art practices. Writers are invited to submit an 800-1,000 word review of a recent exhibition, performance, publication, or moving image work, by May 30, 2025. The winner will receive $750, editorial support to prepare their article for publication in a future issue of C Magazine, and a two-year subscription. All participants will receive a one-year subscription.

For the purposes of the award, an emerging writer is defined as anyone who has not published more than one piece of writing in a recognized print or online publication, exclusive of student-run journals and magazines. The competition is open to anyone residing in Canada, regardless of citizenship status, and to Canadians living abroad.

Exhibition and performance reviews must address work that occurred no earlier than January 1, 2025, whereas book and moving image work reviews must address work made in the past two years. Submissions must not be previously published, or slated for future publication elsewhere. See our submissions page for more information for writers.

One submission per person. Upload your submission here at award-submission.cmagazine.com. Mail or fax submissions will not be accepted. Please let us know of any accommodation we may provide during the application process. Note that measures are taken to ensure that the identity of entrants remains unknown to adjudicators. If you have questions please direct them to editor@cmagazine.com

Submissions will be assessed by Joy Xiang, Editor at C Magazine, alongside Christina Battle and Dr. Andrew Gayed, who we are pleased to welcome as this year's external jurors.

Christina Battle is an artist, curator, and writer based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton), within the Aspen Parkland: the transition zone where prairie and forest meet. Her practice focuses on thinking deeply about the concept of disaster: its complexity and the intricacies entwined within it. She looks to disaster as a series of intersecting processes including social, environmental, cultural, political, and economic, which are implicated not only in how disaster is caused but also in how it manifests, is responded to, and overcome.

Battle’s practice prioritizes collaboration, experimentation, and failure; she has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries as both an artist and curator.

www.cbattle.com

Dr. Andrew Gayed is Assistant Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at OCAD University, where he teaches courses on global contemporary art. An Egyptian-Canadian art historian, Dr. Gayed has an academic background in diasporic art, queer visual culture, and Middle Eastern art histories. Before joining OCAD U, Dr. Gayed was the Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality where he researched the artistic practices of the queer diaspora. Gayed holds a PhD in Art History and Visual Culture from York University, where he was awarded the Provost Dissertation Award, and earned an M.A. in Art History, and a B.F.A. in Visual Arts.

Gayed's research is located at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary and transnational inquiry in art history, gender studies, and critical race theory. His scholarship has appeared in books including the Routledge Handbook of Middle Eastern Diasporas and Unsettling Canadian Art History, in addition to peer-reviewed journals including Journal for Studies in Art Education. Dr. Gayed’s first monograph, Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art, published with the University of Washington Press (2024), shares innovative new research in visual art and culture that transforms our understanding of queerness and multiculturalism. By studying contemporary art, Queer World Making foregrounds decolonial politics and unexpected histories of homosexuality in the Middle East as a way of better understanding the issues today that queer diasporic people of colour face.