Six artists from throughout Canada have been shortlisted for the 2026 version of the distinguished Sobey Artwork Award. They’re Melaw Nakehk’o (representing the Circumpolar area), Samuel Roy-Bois (Pacific), Audie Murray (Prairies), Lotus L. Kang (Ontario), Caroline Monnet (Québec) and Shane Perley-Dutcher (Atlantic).
Now in its twenty third yr, the nation’s prime up to date artwork prize awards the six finalists C$25,000 ($18,000) every with a grand prize of C$100,000 ($72,000) introduced at a ceremony in Ottawa on 14 November. In accordance with a joint announcement by the Sobey Artwork Basis and the Nationwide Gallery of Canada (NGC), an exhibition that includes works by the six shortlisted artists will likely be held on the gallery later this yr. Every of the 24 longlisted artists not among the many six finalists will obtain C$10,000 ($7,200).
The shortlisted artists not solely span Canadian geography, but additionally its cultural and aesthetic variety, with 4 out of the six finalists of First Nations ancestry and others of Asian and African backgrounds. Very like the hybrid nation itself, the finalists’ oeuvre suggests a sure alchemy at work with placing transformations of supplies and traditions.
“This yr’s shortlisted artists signify a dynamic cross-section of latest visible apply,” Jonathan Shaughnessy, the director of curatorial initiatives on the NGC and chair of the 2026 Sobey Award jury, mentioned in an announcement. The finalists’ work spans textile artwork, film-making and sculpture. “By way of modern and compelling transformations of supplies, their artworks form and are formed by deep private, cultural, and materials histories and expertise.”
The Yellowknife-based finalist for the Circumpolar area, Melaw Nakehk’o, is a Dene/Dënesułińe artist and educator whose multidisciplinary apply spans textile arts, film-making and land-based pedagogy. Integrating what they name “Dene methods of figuring out” by means of mushy sculptures sewn with caribou disguise with documentary movies, installations, digital artwork and moosehide tanning taught inside group settings, they’ve sparked a revival and contemporising of conventional arts within the area.
Samuel Roy-Bois, the finalist for the Pacific area, is an acclaimed artist, professor on the College of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus and a previous winner of the Shadbolt Basis’s Viva Award in 2021. His multidisciplinary apply encompasses set up, sculpture and images, exploring the deconstruction of house and redefining the boundaries between artwork and exhibition areas. His award-winning work has been exhibited internationally and is held in main Canadian collections, together with the Vancouver Artwork Gallery and the Musée d’Artwork Contemporain de Montréal.
The Regina-based artist Audie Murray, the finalist from the Prairies area, is a Métis and Cree artist from the Flying Mud First Nation. Her multidisciplinary apply explores ancestral data, reminiscence and up to date Indigenous life throughout media reminiscent of beadwork, drawing and set up, deploying conventional First Nations craft in a recent context. A recipient of the 2025 ohpinamake Prize, her acclaimed work has been exhibited on the Vancouver Artwork Gallery and the Hessel Museum of Artwork.
The finalist from Ontario, Lotus L. Kang, is understood for a apply that encompasses sculpture, images and site-responsive set up, exploring themes of impermanence, inheritance and time. She attracts from industrial and architectural varieties, familial and social histories, poetry and non-human figures. The Sobey jury praised the fluidity of her work, which makes use of unstable, natural and structural varieties that refuse to settle. She was featured within the Whitney Biennial in 2024 and has a serious solo mission within the Bvlgari Pavilion as a collateral exhibition at this yr’s Venice Biennale.
The Montréal-based multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet, the finalist for Québec, attracts from her Anishinaabe and French ancestry to create abstractions of conventional crafts like embroidery which can be directly up to date and timeless. Her work has been featured in main worldwide exhibitions—together with the Whitney Biennial and on the Institute of Up to date Artwork, Boston—and is held in prestigious everlasting collections worldwide.
Shane Perley-Dutcher, the finalist for the Atlantic area, is a Wolastokew (Maliseet) visible artist and metalsmith from New Brunswick who transforms conventional Wabanaki ash basketry by combining mushy metals with natural supplies like cedar, spruce and ash. The artist creates distinctive jewelry from hybrid varieties in addition to imaginative sculptures by weaving metallic splints into mixed-media baskets.
“Yearly, the Sobey Artwork Award reminds us of the unbelievable depth, resilience and expertise in Canada’s up to date artwork group,” Rob Sobey, the chair of the Sobey Artwork Basis, mentioned in an announcement. “This yr’s shortlisted artists are usually not simply consultants of their apply; they’re important cultural voices difficult how we see historical past, surroundings and identification.”
Latest winners of the Sobey Artwork Award embrace Tania Willard, who received it final yr, Nico Williams (2024), Kablusiak (2023), Divya Mehra (2022) and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (2021). The famend sculptor Brian Jungen was the award’s inaugural winner in 2002.
