The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada announced this week the long list of nominees for the 2016 Sobey Art Award, Canada’s prestigious contemporary art prize.
Each year the Award recognizes 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 CAD in prize money are:
Atlantic
Jordan Bennett (Newfoundland)
Ursula Johnson (Nova Scotia)
Lisa Lipton (Nova Scotia)
William Robinson (Nova Scotia)
Jerry Ropson (New Brunswick)
Québec
Olivia Boudreau
Jessica Eaton
Jon Rafman
Karen Tam
Hajra Waheed
Ontario
Kelly Jazvac
Annie MacDonell
Meryl McMaster
Derek Sullivan
Charles Stankievech
Prairies and the North
Brenda Draney (Alberta)
Mark Clintberg (Alberta)
Zachari Logan (Saskatchewan)
Mia Feuer (Manitoba)
Eric Moschopedis and Mia Rushton (Alberta)
West Coast and Yukon
Raymond Boisjoly (British Columbia)
Allison Hrabluik (British Columbia)
Mark Soo (British Columbia)
Jeremy Shaw (British Columbia)
Krista Belle Stewart (British Columbia)
The 2016 curatorial panel, chaired by the Gallery’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, is composed of one 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 (Atlantic); Marie-Justine Snider, Curator of the collection at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Quebec); Barbara Fischer, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto (Ontario); Naomi Potter, Director and Curator of the Esker Foundation (Prairies and the North); Jonathan Middleton, Director and Curator of the Or Gallery (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 Award enables us to better showcase the talent of emerging and already established artists,” she added.
The 2016 short-listed artists will be announced June 1, and their work will be exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada from October 6, 2016 to February 5, 2017. The winner will be announced in November 2016.
About the Sobey Art Foundation
The Sobey Art Foundation was established in 1981 with a mandate to carry on the work of entrepreneur and business leader, the late Frank H. Sobey, to collect and preserve representative examples of 19th and 20th century Canadian art. The Foundation has since broadened its scope to support contemporary Canadian art through the Sobey Art Award. In one of the finest private collections of its kind, the Sobey Art Foundation has assembled outstanding examples from Canadian masters such as Cornelius Krieghoff, Tom Thomson and J.E.H. MacDonald. The collection is housed at Crombie House, the former home of Frank Sobey and his wife Irene, in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
About the National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada is home to the most important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian art. The Gallery also maintains Canada’s premier collection of European Art from the 14th to the 21st century, as well as important works of American, Asian and Indigenous Art and renowned international collections of prints, drawings and photographs. In 2015, the National Gallery of Canada established the Canadian Photography Institute, a global multidisciplinary research centre dedicated to the history, evolution and future of photography. Among its principal missions is to increase access to excellent works of art for all Canadians.
For all media enquiries, please contact:
Josée-Britanie Mallet, Senior Media and Public Relations Officer, National Gallery of Canada
T (613) 990 6835 / bmallet [at] gallery.ca
Bernard Doucet, Sobey Art Foundation
T (902) 752 8371, ext. 2301 / M (902) 921 1755 / bernard.doucet [at] sobeys.com
