EQ Bank announces recipients of the 2025 Emerging Digital Artists Award
TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2025 /CNW/ - EQ Bank today announces the five recipients of the 2025 Emerging Digital Artists Award (EDAA), Canada's leading award for critical experimentation in digital media. Launched in 2015 with EQ Bank, the annual prize champions up-and-coming artists from across the country working in a range of media, including video, animation, web art, game art, apps and immersive technologies, among others.
This year's EDAA recipients in their respective categories are:
- Still Image – Eva Grant, Exquisite Machines for Making Anything But Children (2025)
Eva is a Queer, St̓át̓imc-Eurasian filmmaker, curator and new media artist based in Victoria, BC. Her world-building practice activates Land-based storytelling, research-creation and speculative design to prototype decolonial and capacious futures informed by disability justice, Indigenous ontologies and ecological sovereignty.
- Moving Image – Alex Gibson , Untitled Passage (2025)
Alex is a Barbadian Canadian interdisciplinary artist based on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver, BC). They use images and archives as sites to examine queer spaces, temporalities and architectures.
- 2D Interactive – Cadin Londono, El Cumbiatron (2025)
Cadin is a Colombian game developer born in Chateauguay, QC and based in Tio'Tia:ke (Montréal, QC). His interest in coding began from a young age, watching his father code his own games in his free time.
- Extended Reality – Laura Caraballo , No Me Demoro (2024)
Laura is an interdisciplinary artist born in Bogotá and based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal, QC). Her work explores the use of technology to create interactive, sensorial physical and virtual spaces that represent and engage communities in meaningful conversations.
- 3D Installation – Kahani Ploessl , Virtual Shiva (2025)
Kahani (कहानी) is a dimension-bending tech artist based in Markham, ON. Her work in generative, videogame, and installation art explores notions of the glitch and digital spiritualism. Guided by her Indian heritage, Kahani draws parallels between the cosmic philosophy of Hinduism and the pixelated manifestations of digital realms and avatar bodies.
"Digital artists are redefining how we experience creativity and are unafraid to explore new mediums and question what art can be," said Chadwick Westlake, President and CEO. "As Canada's Challenger Bank, we share that same ethos – driven by curiosity, innovation and the courage to think differently. Supporting the Emerging Digital Artists Award for more than a decade has been our way of celebrating the visionaries who continue to challenge expectations and move culture forward."
The 2025 EDAA garnered over 130 submissions from emerging digital artists across the country. Submissions were reviewed and assessed by an impressive lineup of guest judges from the digital and contemporary arts communities including Lillian O'Brien Davis, Maxwell Lander, Rea McNamara, and Bomi Yook, alongside EQ Bank's curatorial team. The five recipients' works were selected for their originality, technical expertise and critical approach to their subject matter within the field of contemporary digital art.
"We're thrilled to see the broadest geographic representation of recipients since the award's inception in 2015," said Shannon Linde, Senior Curator. "This year's artists reflect the incredible range of voices shaping Canada's digital art landscape today. I'm deeply grateful to our guest jury for recognizing such bold and original work, and excited for audiences to experience these pieces through our growing partnerships with arts organizations across the country."
Each artist will receive a $5,000 grand prize, in addition to a one-year subscription to Pilot Art List. The five award-winning works will be featured in a touring group exhibition starting at Gallery TPW, Toronto, January 7 – 31, 2026, and travelling to Art Windsor-Essex March 19 – June 28, 2026. The five works will also be included in a virtual exhibition produced in partnership with the MacKenzie Art Gallery in 2026. Lastly, one of the five recipients will have their work featured in BlackFlash Magazine in print and online.
For full information about the 2025 recipients and their winning artworks, images and jury testimonies, please explore the 2025 EDAA press package here.
About the EDAA
The Emerging Digital Artists Award (EDAA) is Canada's award for critical experimentation in digital media, proudly presented by EQ Bank. Launched in 2015, the EDAA has awarded over $200,000 to 64 artists and celebrated a range of screen-based practices including video, animation, virtual reality, game art, and web art. To learn more, follow us on Instagram.
About EQ Bank
Equitable Bank has a clear mission to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. As Canada's Challenger Bank™ and seventh largest bank by assets, it leverages technology to deliver exceptional personal and commercial banking experiences and services to over 761,000 customers and more than six million credit union members through its businesses. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of EQB Inc. (TSX: EQB), a leading digital financial services company with $137 billion in combined assets under management and administration (as of July 31, 2025). Through its digital EQ Bank platform (eqbank.ca), its customers have named it one of the top banks in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks list since 2021.
To learn more, please visit eqb.investorroom.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.
For artist-related inquiries, contact:
Shannon Linde
Senior Curator
[email protected]
Media contact:
Maggie Hall
Director, PR & Communications
[email protected]
437-214-2442
Investor contact:
Lemar Persaud
VP and Head of IR
[email protected]
SOURCE EQ Bank
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