2024 Sobey Art Award call for nominations now open

Posted February 26, 2024

The Sobey Art Award recognizes a new Circumpolar
region and increases total prize purse to $465,000

OTTAWA, Wednesday, February 21, 2024—The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and the Sobey Art Foundation (SAF) announce that the 2024 Sobey Art Award call for nominations is now open. Nominations will be accepted until Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 8 p.m. EST. Starting this year, Canada’s preeminent contemporary visual arts award will recognize an additional five Canadian artists. A sixth region, Circumpolar, has been added to the nomination process, encompassing Nunavut, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador), Yukon and the Northwest Territories. This fundamental change to the award brings the total prize money to $465,000 and ensures that five longlisted artists and one shortlisted artist will always hail from this region.

The 2024 Sobey Art Award nomination form is accessible online here.

“The Sobey Art Award mission is to champion and propel the careers of visual artists of all ages from across Canada; the addition of the Circumpolar region is a testament to the Sobey Art Foundation’s direct support to artists and the perspectives they bring,” said Jonathan Shaughnessy, Director, Curatorial Initiatives, NGC, and Chair of the 2024 Sobey Award Jury. “I look forward to working with our jury to discover more submissions from across the country.”
“We are very happy that even more deserving contemporary artists from Canada will be included in the Sobey Art Award long- and shortlists,” said Rob Sobey, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Sobey Art Foundation. “The Circumpolar region was added to acknowledge the incredible talent of artists from this region and to better reflect the cultural makeup of our country. We look forward to this year’s edition and to connecting more of Canada’s most innovative and creative voices with new audiences.”

The 2024 longlist, to be announced on April 30, 2024, will feature 30 Canadian artists; five artists from each of the six regions across Canada: Circumpolar, Pacific, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic.

With a total of $465,000 in prize money awarded to Canadian contemporary visual artists, the Sobey Art Award is the richest award in the country and one of the most generous in the world. The overall winner receives $100,000; each of the five shortlisted artists receives $25,000; and each of the remaining longlisted artists receives $10,000.

Six shortlisted artists will be announced on June 11, 2024 and featured in an exhibition at the NGC this fall. The winner will be announced at a celebration on November 9, 2024. The 2023 Sobey Art Award went to Kablusiak, representing the former Prairies and North region.

About the nomination process

The Sobey Art Award is open to individual artists and collectives. Nominees must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada and have received recognition from peers, critics, and/or curators.

The NGC will accept nominations for the Award from established artists, arts professionals, scholars, critics, curators, professionals from art galleries and artist-run-centres, as well as private Canadian dealers in visual or media arts. The NGC will notify the sender by e-mail upon receipt of a nomination package.

Artworks from the five 2023 Sobey Art Award shortlisted artists are currently on display at the National Gallery of Canada until March 3, 2024.

#SobeyArtAward2024

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About the Sobey Art Award

The Sobey Art Award (SAA) is Canada’s preeminent prize for Canadian contemporary visual artists. Created in 2002 with funding from the Sobey Art Foundation (SAF), the SAA has helped to propel the careers of artists through financial support and recognition in Canada and beyond. The SAA has been jointly administered by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and SAF since 2016.

The past winners of the Sobey Art Award are: Brian Jungen (2002), Jean-Pierre Gauthier (2004), Annie Pootoogook (2006), Michel de Broin (2007), Tim Lee (2008), David Altmejd (2009), Daniel Barrow (2010), Daniel Young and Christian Giroux (2011), Raphaëlle de Groot (2012), Duane Linklater (2013), Nadia Myre (2014), Abbas Akhavan (2015), Jeremy Shaw (2016), Ursula Johnson (2017), Kapwani Kiwanga (2018), Stephanie Comilang (2019), Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (2021), Divya Mehra (2022) and Kablusiak (2023).

About the Sobey Art Foundation

The Sobey Art Foundation was established in 1981 by the late Frank H. Sobey who was a dedicated collector of Canadian art. The Sobey Art Award was founded in 2002 as privately funded prizes for Canadian contemporary visual artists. The award aims to promote new developments in contemporary visual art and attract national and international attention to Canadian artists.

About the National Gallery of Canada

Ankosé / Everything is Connected / Tout est relié

The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé—an Anishinaabemowin word that means “everything is connected”—reflects the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European art from the 14th to the 21st century. Founded in 1880, NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years. For more information, visit gallery.ca.