Sobey Award Finalists Announced
The five regional finalists for this year's Sobey Art Awards, one of the country's most prestigious visual art prizes, have been announced by the Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada.
They are Gabi Dao, West Coast and Yukon; Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Prairies and North; Rajni Perera, Ontario; Lorna Bauer, Quebec; and Rémi Belliveau, Atlantic.
The award, which carries a top prize of $100,000, changed its criteria this year to celebrate the careers of emerging Canadian artists of all ages. Previously, it was open to emerging artists under 40.
The work of the five finalists will be included in an exhibition from Oct. 8 to Feb. 20 at the National Gallery of Canada. Each finalist receives an award of $25,000. The winner will be announced in November.
Sasha Suda, the director of the National Gallery, said the artists represent the future of contemporary art in Canada.
“Throughout this challenging year, the Sobey Art Award has helped sustain my optimism for the artform," she said.
An independent jury of curators from the five regions, as well as two international jurors, oversaw the competition. Chaired by Suda, the jury includes Nisk Imbeault, director of the Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen at the University of Moncton; Dominique Fontaine, independent curator; Emelie Chhangur, director of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ont.; Tarah Hogue, curator of Indigenous Art at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon; Joni Low, independent curator; Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand; and Adam D. Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown director at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
For more information, go here: https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/sobey-art-award.
