Canada’s Sobey Art Award Radically Revamped for 2020

In place of naming a single winner of the CAD $100,000 prize, the longlist of 25 artists will all be awarded $25,000.

In response to COVID-19, major changes have been made to Canada's pre-eminent contemporary art prize for artists aged 40 or under.

Ordinarily, the CAD $100,000 Sobey Art Award is given to a winner at a gala following an exhibition of works by five shortlisted artists. This year, the exhibition and gala have both been cancelled, and there will be no one winner.

Instead, The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada, who together administer the prize, will award $25,000 to each of the 25 longlisted artists.

Altogether, artists will receive $650,000 this year, compared to the usual $240,000 divided between the $100,000 first prize winner, four shortlisted artists who receive $25,000 each, and the remaining 20 longlisted artists, who receive $2,000 each.

'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 Sobey Art Foundation Chair Rob Sobey. 'Our sincere wish is that this year's longlist artists will utilise this additional support to continue to do so.'

Last year's Sobey Art Award winner was Filipina-Canadian video artist Stephanie Comilang.

The full longlist of nominees follows below, arranged by region. —[O]

West Coast and Yukon

Michele Di Menna

Tsēmā Igharas

Carmen Papalia

Joseph Tisiga

Zadie Xa

Praries 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