The five shortlisted artists for the 2023 Sobey Art Award, Canada's preeminent prize for contemporary visual artists, were announced today by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and the Sobey Art Foundation (SAF). Works by the five finalists will be on view at the Gallery from October 13, 2023 until March 3, 2024. The winner will be announced in November. Artist Divya Mehra won the $100,000 Sobey prize in 2022.
The five 2023 Sobey Art Award finalists are
Séamus Gallagher, a lens-based artist, infusing queer aesthetics with self-portraiture, video game engines, and set construction. The artist explores the limits of representation, and failure as a form of liberation. Gallagher is from Moncton, New Brunswick and is currently living in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Anahita Norouzi, a research-driven multidisciplinary artist whose practice is articulated through a wide range of materials and mediums including sculpture, installation, photography and video. Her work is impelled by marginalized histories, and the legacies of botanical explorations and archaeological excavations, Norouzi is originally from Tehran, Iran and has worked in Montréal since 2018.
Michèle Pearson Clarke, an artist and educator working in photography, video and installation. Clarke’s work positions grief as a site of possibility for social engagement and political connection, with a particular focus on Black and queer experiences of longing and loss. Clarke was born in Trinidad and is currently based in Toronto, Ontario.
Kablusiak, a multidisciplinary Inuvialuk artist and curator who uses Inuk ingenuity to create work in a variety of mediums, including lingerie, white flour, soapstone, felt, acrylic paint, and words. The artist’s work explores dis/connections and family and community ties within the Inuit diaspora, as well as the impact of colonization on Inuit expressions of gender and sexuality, on health and wellbeing, and on daily life. Kablusiak was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, and they are currently based in Calgary, Alberta.
Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill, a Métis artist and writer. Her sculptural practice explores the history of found materials, enquiring into concepts of land, property and economy. Hill was born in Comox, British Columbia and currently lives on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples/Vancouver, British Columbia.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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