Sobey Art Awards Exhibit Opening at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa
0I was invited to document the opening of the exhibition this year! Sadly I was quite sick so I had to stay far away from the people but I managed to get one interview (coming in a subsequent video)
Installations by this year’s six shortlisted artists for Canada’s preeminent contemporary visual art award on view at the National Gallery of Canada
OTTAWA, Thursday, October 3, 2024 – Compelling works by the six visual artists shortlisted for the 2024 Sobey Art Award – Canada’s preeminent contemporary art award – are now on view at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). From 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. this evening, the public is invited to meet the six finalists and discover their respective installations. Organized by the Gallery and the Sobey Art Foundation (SAF), the 2024 Sobey Art Award
Exhibition runs until April 6, 2025. This year’s award winner will be announced on November 9, 2024 during a celebration at the Gallery. The 2024 Sobey Art Award Exhibition highlights each of the finalists’ dynamic practices – including beadwork, ceramic, drawing, experimental film, mixed-media installations, photography and sculpture – which bring invaluable insights into matters of place, identity, community and belonging.
Featured artists
Taqralik Partridge (Inuk, Scottish), shortlisted for the Circumpolar region, expresses the intergenerational importance of caribou to Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous peoples through an amautik (women’s parka) and video in Tuktujuq. It references an amautik design from Partridge’s community. The accompanying audio and video evoke the sensation of being surrounded by caribou, an experience impacted by colonialism, capitalism and climate change.
Judy Chartrand (Cree), finalist for the Pacific region, flips the script, using humour, satire and pop-culture imagery to confront colonial narratives, racism and stereotypes. Her works, including DTES Influencer Selfie, In Memory of Those No Longer With Us, and Indian Residential School Boys Praying We Get the Hell Out of Here, depict urban Indigenous experiences of poverty, violence, and discrimination, and of the children forced to attend Canadian residential schools.
Rhayne Vermette (Métis), finalist for the Prairies region, creates poetic work focusing on family, home, distance and identity through multilayered storytelling. Drawing from architecture, she combines documentary and fiction to create dreamlike effects. Le Miracle à Ste. Anne, a segment from her atmospheric first feature-length film Ste. Anne (2021), is a collaborative project in Treaty 1 territory, includes themes such as familial tensions, memory, home and identity.
June Clark, shortlisted for the Ontario region, adopts a multidisciplinary practice to explore the intersection of personal and family histories, memory and identity. Her autobiographical works, like 2191 Reprise, reflect her childhood in Harlem and her move to Toronto. Clark’s work uses Xerox photo-transfers and graphite stencilled texts to vividly depict incidents from her childhood. The work eloquently illustrates the elusive nature of memory and the shared values of community.
Nico Williams ᐅᑌᒥᐣ (Anishinaabe), a finalist for the Quebec region, creates beadwork sculptures of everyday objects, often collaboratively made, incorporating historical and political narratives, cultural observations and connections to kinship and place. His sculptures, such as Bang on Man!!!, Barrier, Caution Tape, and Uncle, question access to space and draw attention to the transformation of Indigenous lands through construction and urbanization.
Mathieu Léger, shortlisted artist for the Atlantic region, navigates his Acadian heritage and how it influences present experiences through physical actions. His bodies of work Performing the Act That Makes the Mark, Which Makes the Sound and Obstacles & Amendments, reflect his study of rhythmic dexterity and spatial awareness. Léger’s work explores genetics, biology, history and time. The artist would like to acknowledge the support of artsnb, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation, with additional thanks to Artcast Inc. and TrüRoot Cymbals.
The 2024 Sobey Art Award Exhibition is curated by the National Gallery of Canada’s Stephanie Burdzy, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art; Ooleepeeka Eegeesiak, Curatorial Assistant, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization; Jasmine Inglis, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art and Photographs; Andrea Kunard, Senior Curator, Photographs; and Michelle LaVallee, Director, Indigenous Ways and Curatorial Initiatives. New this year, Circumpolar has been added as a sixth region, increasing representation from across the country. Prize money now totals $465,000, including $100,000 for the winner. As well, the independent jury overseeing the deliberations is made up of six Canadian artists, all former Sobey Art Award recipients or finalists, with representation from each of the regions, and an international juror.