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David Altmejd. Nadia Myre. Abbas Akhavan. Brian Jungen.
These are just some of the past winners of the prestigious Sobey Art Award, which now offers a total of $240,000 in prize money annually to talented Canadian artists aged 40 or under—as well as residency opportunities and a special exhibition highlight.
Could your favourite young artist be next to win? Now is the time to put them forward: the call for nominations has just been launched, with a deadline set for March 1.
“The Sobey Art Award is a humbling encouragement to continue to make work that asks us to look anew at society and its past while allowing us to imagine unbounded possibilities,” Kapwani Kiwanga stated after she won the Sobey Art Award’s $100,000 first prize in November 2018. “The award affords me the opportunity to create conditions which will allow me to focus more intently on my work and push it further in the years to come.”
And it’s not just first-prize winners who benefit from a successful nomination: $2,000 is awarded to each of the Sobey Art Award’s longlisted artists, and $25,000 is awarded to each of its shortlisted artists.
The work of each year’s five award finalists is also featured in a special exhibition that alternates yearly between the National Gallery of Canada and prominent art institutions across the country.
“The breadth of media on view is remarkable,” said University of Toronto curator Sarah Robayo Sheridan of the 2017 Sobey Art Award exhibition, which featured new pieces by that year’s finalists Raymond Boisjoly, Divya Mehra, Jacynthe Carrier, Bridget Moser and Ursula Johnson. She added, “The work possesses a lot of ambition.” The Globe and Mail agreed, calling that show “bright and boisterous”—proof that Canada can and does produce world-leading art talent.
In a new development, three artists from the Sobey Art Award longlist are also being selected each year to participate in the Sobey Art Award Residencies Program. This program provides international residencies that range in length between three to six months.
For the inaugural edition of the residences, announced in 2018, Lou Sheppard of Halifax secured a three-month residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York; Toronto art duo Life of a Craphead got the chance to do a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in London, England; and Syilx Nation artist Krista Belle Stewart signed on for a six-month residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany.
“The Sobey Art Foundation is thrilled to work with the National Gallery to establish new ways to recognize and bolster the careers of Canadian artists through the Sobey Art Award program,” said Rob Sobey, chair of the Sobey Art Foundation, when the residencies were launched a few months ago. “I am personally excited at the potential these residencies have to shine a light on our country’s leading young artists.”
(Accordingly, the international profile of the Sobey Art Award is growing, too. In recent years, the award ceremony, exhibition and shortlist release has received coverage in Artforum, the Art Newspaper, Artnews and Artnet, to name just a few outlets.)
All it takes to be considered for all these programs, honours and exposure opportunities is a successful nomination. This year, nominations are due March 1. The longlist will be revealed April 16, and the shortlist on June 12. The five shortlisted artists will then be part of an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Alberta opening on October 5. And the winner of the 2019 Sobey Art Award will be announced on November 15.
Nominations for the Sobey Art Award are free of charge to submit, though certain conditions apply. For full details, visit the call for nominations page open now on the National Gallery of Canada’s website.
