Now in its 24th year and 22nd running, the Sobey Art Award is Canada's most established contemporary visual arts prize
OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - Works by Canada's most compelling contemporary artists are now on display at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) in the 2025 Sobey Art Award Exhibition. Featuring a selection of recent works by the six visual artists shortlisted for the 2025 Sobey Art Award, Canada's most established contemporary visual arts prize, the show is organized by the NGC and the Sobey Art Foundation. Runs until February 8, 2026.
Canadians are invited to discover the captivating and thought-provoking worlds created by each artist, and to meet them at the official public opening tonight at 6 p.m. as part of our Free Thursday Nights.
"Now in its 24th year and 22nd running, the Sobey Art Award is a wonderful platform to discover our country's leading contemporary art voices," said Rob Sobey, The Sobey Art Foundation's Chair. "Together with the National Gallery of Canada, the Sobey Art Foundation is proud to be continuing its aim to promote Canadian and Indigenous artists from this land to national and international audiences. On behalf of all of us at the Foundation, we invite art lovers from far and wide to come and be moved and challenged by these exceptional works."
"The National Gallery of Canada is proud to partner with the Sobey Art Foundation on the latest edition of the Sobey Art Award. Through paintings, drawings, textiles, video, sculpture, multidisciplinary installations and more, the works of this year's finalists capture the vitality of art-making in this country while touching on complex issues vital to understanding our identity in the world today," said Jonathan Shaughnessy, Director, Curatorial Initiatives, NGC, and Chair of the 2025 Sobey Art Award Jury. "It is with great enthusiasm that the Gallery shines a national spotlight on their respective artistic practices through the Sobey Art Award process and exhibition."
Highlights of the works on display
Tarralik Duffy (Inuk), shortlisted for the Circumpolar region, activates nostalgia and critique in confluences of pop culture aesthetics, commercial products and language. At once delightful and biting, Duffy's soft sculpture, such as Kuka Kuula (2025), and Red Jerry Cans (2025), along with her digital drawings convey experiences that shaped her life between Salliq, NU, and the south. These objects, while providing access and comfort, also convey the long-term implications of brutal policies that entrenched food scarcity through the removal of Inuit from their homelands and sustaining land-based practices.
Tania Willard (Secwépemc and settler), finalist for the Pacific region, weaves intergenerational knowledges of Secwépemc aunties in vibrant homage to their skill and innovation, past and present. With Surrounded/Surrounding (2018), Willard expresses how such skills are and were contingent on profound relations of people, land, animals, waters, and ancestors, through collaborations with artists and communities, along with the utility of art works. Land Art (2021) handmade ceramic spray paint cans with dyed buck deer tail hairs and The Combo (2012) convey the dynamic integration of land-based knowledges and contemporary activisms.
Chukwudubem Ukaigwe , finalist for the Prairies region, is an artist, curator and writer born in Nigeria. His paintings combine various technologies and media to convey overlapping ideas in a visual language marked by a vibrancy of materials and colour. On view in the exhibition, Ain't at the Gate (Titled After Lubrin)? (2023) exposes the artist's internal conflicts with common issues while also criticizing outside factors influencing Black communities. This installation includes a painting resting on a pair of speakers from which an edited soundtrack plays a track of songs and spoken poetry on the theme of the extra planetary, including Charles Mingus's "Please Don't Come Back From the Moon" (1962) and Dorothy Donegan's piano playing in "How High the Moon" (1959).
Sandra Brewster , finalist for the Ontario region, is a multidisciplinary artist and the child of Guyanese parents. Inspired by the Caribbean diaspora, her visual language is diverse and takes shape across realms of drawing, painting, gel transfers, photography, video and mixed media. Her work explores land, water, and belonging while reflecting on diasporic experiences and themes of Black joy and presence. Included in the exhibition is the artist's recent large-scale triptych creations, Guyana Girls (2024-5) in which schoolgirls in uniform look out to the viewer in an image of fortitude, hope and post-colonial resilience.
Swapnaa Tamhane , shortlisted for the Quebec region, is a multidisciplinary artist and curator working in Canada and India. Her practice--rooted in her Indian cultural heritage--combines art, craft and design to challenge cultural assumptions. Her work explores the impact of colonization and the legacies of Partition and Independence in India, using materials like fibre, pulp and indigo and Indian vernacular techniques. Among the works on view are This Thread (2025) a suite of 18 new drawings by the artist, as well as Library I, II, and III (2025) that consist of mirrored cabinets holding examples of block printed cotton textiles that are a signature aspect of her work.
Hangama Amiri , finalist for the Atlantic region, is an Afghan Canadian artist, recognized for her intricate and intensely laborious fabric-based artworks. Taught to sew at a young age by her mother, and inspired by her uncle's tailoring shop, Amiri's textiles are rooted in her personal history and relationship with Afghanistan and the places she and her family have lived since fleeing Kabul in 1996. Among her works on view are Quiet Resistance, e.g., Noon, Still Life With Saladand Qabeli Palaw (2023) and Women Chatting (2023). In these works, Amiri highlights the home as a space for women's defiance against Taliban restrictions.
This year's award winner will be announced on November 8, 2025, during a celebration at the Gallery.
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 Award has helped to promote new developments in contemporary visual art and 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), Kablusiak (2023) and Nico Williams (2024).
About the National Gallery of Canada
Founded in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada is among the world's most respected art institutions. As a national museum, we exist to serve all Canadians, no matter where they live. We do this by sharing our collection, exhibitions and public programming widely. We create dynamic experiences that allow for new ways of seeing ourselves and each other through the visual arts, while centering Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Our mandate is to develop, preserve and present a collection for the learning and enjoyment of all--now and for generations to come. We are home to more than 90,000 works, including one of the finest collections of Indigenous and Canadian art, major works from the 14th to the 21st century and extensive library and archival holdings.
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SOURCE National Gallery of Canada
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