The National Gallery of Canada at night. Photo: Dennis Jarvis. Used under a Creative Commons License.
Today, the Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada announced significant changes to the 2020 Sobey Art Award, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
This year, each of the 25 artists on the jury-selected longlist will be awarded $25,000. And there will not be a final winner announcement, nor a five-artist shortlist.
In previous years, the four shortlisted artists received $25,000 each, while the 20 longlisted artists would each receive $2,000 and a single winner would receive $100,000.
“These extraordinary, historic, and challenging circumstances will have a profound impact on the livelihoods and practices of artists across Canada and around the world,” said Rob Sobey, chair of the Sobey Foundation, in a release. “As we all adjust to the changes in our every-day lives, we recognize how artists and their art can bring us together. Our sincere wish is that this year’s longlist artists will utilize this additional support to continue to do so.”
Here are the longlisted artists—five for each region recognized by the prize.
West Coast and Yukon
Michele Di Menna
Tsēmā Igharas
Carmen Papalia
Joseph Tisiga
Zadie Xa
Prairies and North
asinnajaq
Jason de Haan
Luther Konadu
Amy Malbeuf
Freya Björg Olafson
Ontario
Bambitchell
Sara Cwynar
Georgia Dickie
Jagdeep Raina
Catherine Telford Keogh
Quebec
Adam Basanta
Moridja Kitenge Banza
Manuel Mathieu
Caroline Monnet
Sabrina Ratté
Atlantic
Jordan Bennett
Melanie Colosimo
Graeme Patterson
Lou Sheppard
D’Arcy Wilson
The longlisted artists were selected from more than 100 nominations. The selection was made by jurors Matthew Hills, director/curator, Grenfell Art Gallery; Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Ph.D., curator of international modern and contemporary art, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Frances Loeffler, curator, Oakville Galleries; Jaimie Isaac, curator, Indigenous and contemporary art, Winnipeg Art Gallery; Henry Heng Lu, curator, Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art; and Carly Whitefield, assistant curator, international art (film) at Tate Modern.
The Sobey Art Award is “committed to returning to the juried annual award and the international residencies program as soon as public health guidelines permit,” says today’s release.
