Kablusiak wins the 2023 Sobey Art Award
Kablusiak (photo courtesy of the artist)
Kablusiak is the winner of the 2023 Sobey Art Award.
The $100,000 award is Canada’s top prize for contemporary visual arts.
“This opportunity allows so many doors to open and I am grateful for every moment,” said Kablusiak.
The announcement was made Saturday by last year's Sobey Art Award winner Divya Mehra at the National Gallery of Canada in Toronto.
“The 2023 Sobey Art Award jury felt compelled by Kablusiak’s fearless and unapologetic practice that confounds old categories and art histories and points to new imaginaries. Their multidisciplinary vocabulary deploys the experience of being looked at without being seen that shapes Inuit and queer realities in both the art world and society at large,” said Jonathan Shaughnessy, NGC’s Director, Curatorial Initiatives, and Chair of the 2023 Sobey Award Jury. “Their attention to materiality and embodiment, along with a critical use of humour, are world-building and affirming.”
Each of the four other shortlisted artists — Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill, Michèle Pearson Clark, Anahita Norouzi and Séamus Gallagher — receive $25,000.
The 2023 Sobey Art Award Exhibition features work from all of this year's finalists and is on view at the National Gallery of Canada through Mar. 3, 2024.
Born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Kablusiak is a multi-disciplinary Inuvialuk artist and curator in Calgary. They are represented by Norberg Hall Gallery in Calgary.
They received a diploma in Fine Art from Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton in 2013 and completed their Bachelor in Fine Arts at the Alberta College of Art and Design (now Alberta University of the Arts) in 2016. Their work explores ties within the Inuit diaspora and the effects of colonization on Inuit life.
They have won many other awards for their work, including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Young Artist Prize in 2017, an Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Award in 2020, and the 2022 Gattuso Prize.They were also shortlisted for the 2019 Sobey Art Award and in May 2023, they were shortlisted for the 2023 Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award. Their recent co-curatorial work includes INUA, the inaugural exhibition of 90 Inuit artists at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq.
An independent jury of curators from across Canada, and one international juror, selected Kablusiak as the winner of the 2023 Sobey Art Award.
The Sobey Art Award was created in 2002 to promote contemporary visual art and to attract global attention to Canadian artists. The award is administered by the National Gallery of Canada and the Sobey Art Foundation, which was created in 1981 by the late Frank H. Sobey, a prominent collector of Canadian art.
Source: National Gallery of Canada
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