OTTAWA – Five visual artists shortlisted for the Sobey Art Awards will be recognized for contemporary works that explore queer representation, the diaspora experience and Canadian identity.
The National Gallery of Canada and the Sobey Art Foundation have announced five nominees for the $100,000 prize, which will be awarded in November.
Each of the four runners-up will receive $25,000 and works from all five shortlisted artists will be part of an exhibition at the National Gallery from October 13 to March 3, 2024.
Contenders include Calgary-based Inuvialuk artist Kablusiak, also shortlisted in 2019, and Métis artist and writer Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, born in Comox, BC, who was shortlisted in 2019.
Fellow nominee and Halifax resident Séamus Gallagher of Moncton, NB – known for combining queer aesthetics with self-portraits – won the National Gallery’s New Generation Photography Award last year.
Also in the running is Montreal-based Anahita Norouzi, who explores marginalized histories through sculpture, installation, photography and video; and Toronto-based, Trinidad-born Michèle Pearson Clarke, who focuses on black and queer experiences in her photographs, videos and installations.
The shortlist was selected by an independent jury consisting of curators from five regions of Canada and one international judge.
The Sobey Art Award was established in 2002 with funding from the Sobey Art Foundation and has been jointly administered by the foundation and the National Gallery since 2016.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2023.
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