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The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada have announced the long list of nominees for the 2016 Sobey Art Award, Canada’s prestigious contemporary art prize.
Each year the Sobey Art Award is awarded to a visual artist age 40 and under who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated. The 2016 curatorial jury panel has announced that the 25 artists vying for the combined $100,000 Cdn in prize money for the 2016 Sobey Art Award are:
ATLANTIC
Jordan Bennett (Stephenville Crossing, Newfoundland)
Ursula Johnson (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Lisa Lipton (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
William Robinson (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Jerry Ropson (Sackville, New Brunswick)
QUÉBEC
Olivia Boudreau (Montreal, Quebec)
Jessica Eaton (Montreal, Quebec)
Jon Rafman (Montreal, Quebec)
Karen Tam (Montreal, Quebec)
Hajra Waheed (Montreal, Quebec)
ONTARIO
Kelly Jazvac (London, Ontario)
Annie MacDonell (Toronto, Ontario)
Meryl McMaster (Ottawa, Ontario)
Derek Sullivan (Toronto and Forest Mills, Ontario)
Charles Stankievech (Toronto, Ontario)
PRAIRIES & THE NORTH
Brenda Draney (Edmonton, Alberta)
Mark Clintberg (Calgary, Alberta)
Zachari Logan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)
Mia Feuer (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
Eric Moschopedis and Mia Rushton (Calgary, Alberta)
WEST COAST & YUKON
Raymond Boisjoly (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Allison Hrabluik (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Mark Soo (Vancouver, BC, and Berlin, Germany)
Jeremy Shaw (Vancouver, BC, and Berlin, Germany)
Krista Belle Stewart (Douglas Lake, BC, and Brooklyn, New York)
The 2016 curatorial panel, chaired by the Gallery’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, is composed of one distinguished representative from each of Canada’s five regions and, for the first time, one international juror: Pan Wendt, Curator at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, for the Atlantic Provinces; Marie-Justine Snider, Curator of the collection at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, for the Quebec region; Barbara Fischer, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, for the Ontario region; Naomi Potter, Director and Curator of the Esker Foundation, for the Prairies and the North region; Jonathan Middleton, Director and Curator of the Or Gallery, for the West Coast and Yukon; and Nicolaus Schafhausen, Artistic Director at the Kunsthalle Wien, Austria.
“I’m delighted to be working with these distinguished curators from across the country and abroad and to have a much-needed conversation about engaging artistic practices in Canada”, said NGC’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Josée Drouin-Brisebois. “The Sobey Art Award enables us to become better aware of the rich and diversified Canadian visual arts scenes and to showcase the talent of emerging and already established artists”, she added.
The 2016 short list of the Sobey Art Award will be announced June 1. Work by the short-listed artists will be exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada from October 6, 2016 to February 5, 2017. The winner of the 2016 Sobey Art Award will be announced at the Gallery during a gala event in November 2016.
The Award will distribute a total of $100,000 Cdn, including a top award of $50,000, a $10,000 prize to each of the other short-listed artists, and $500 to each of the other long-listed artists.
Report courtesy of The National Gallery.