The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada announced the five artists who have been short-listed for the 2016 Sobey Art Award, Canada’s prestigious contemporary art prize. The shortlisted artists are:
From the West Coast and the Yukon: Jeremy Shaw (Vancouver, BC, and Berlin, Germany)
From the Prairies and the North: Brenda Draney (Edmonton, Alberta)
From Ontario: Charles Stankievech (Toronto)
From Québec: Hajra Waheed (Montréal)
From the Atlantic: William Robinson (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
The selection of these finalists from a long list of exceptional nominees was made by a jury chaired by the Gallery’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Josée Drouin-Brisebois, which included Jonathan Middleton, Director and Curator of the Or Gallery, Vancouver, British-Columbia; Naomi Potter, Director and Curator of the Esker Foundation, Calgary, Alberta; Barbara Fischer, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Ontario; Marie-Justine Snider, Curator of the collection at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, in Montréal, Québec; and Pan Wendt, Curator at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Prince Edward Island.
For the first time, an international juror joined the Award selection committee. “The jury chose five artistic approaches whose work is characteristic of the frequently transdisciplinary practice of the upcoming generation of artists. In their work, these artists all link the questioning of their own artistic production with the reflection of social contexts,” said Nicolaus Schafhausen, Artistic Director at the Kunsthalle, in Vienna.
More information about the nominees and the jurors is available at gallery.ca/sobey.
The five short-listed artists’ work will be featured in a special exhibition at the gallery from October 6, 2016, to February 5, 2017. The 2016 Sobey Art Award winner will be announced during a gala event taking place at the Gallery in November 2016.
The Award recognizes Canadian artists, age 40 and under, and will distribute its annual prize total of 100,000 CAD, including a top award of 50,000 CAD, 10,000 CAD to each of the other short-listed artists, and 500 CAD to each of the other long-listed artists. The Award was initiated in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation to enhance the recognition of excellence in Canadian contemporary art. In 2016 the National Gallery of Canada became the Award’s organizing institution, signifying an ambitious new national and global profile for Contemporary Canadian art.
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 in an intimate setting 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.
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 / bernard.doucet [at] sobeys.com
