Longlist for the 2015 Sobey Art Award announced

Lisa Lipton, Ballad Boy, 2014, Chapter VIII – The Impossible Blue Rose, Woody Point, Gros Morne, NL, Video Still – HD Video, Mixed media installation and site-specific performance involving: costuming, painted walls, rocks & found objects, wood burnt branches, lighting, stationary designs, 30 min. video for computer prop, music. Credit: Tom Cochrane

The Sobey Art Award, Canada’s pre-eminent contemporary art award since 2002, has announced the curatorial panel’s 25 artist-strong longlist. The award is given annually to a visual artist under 40 who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of the nomination. There’s a total of $100,000 in prize money awarded each year, $50,000 for the winner, $10,000 for each of the shortlisted finalists and $500 for every remaining longlisted artist. An Atlantic artist has never won the award.

West Coast/Yukon
Fiona Ackerman
Sonny Assu
Raymond Boisjoly
Tiziana La Melia
Jeremy Shaw

Prairies and the North
Cedric Bomford
Jason de Haan
Sarah Anne Johnson
Scott Rogers
Kara Uzelman

Ontario
Abbas Akhavan
Brendan Fernandes
Maggie Groat
Annie MacDonell
Derek Sullivan

Quebec
Sophie Bélair Clément
Yannick Desranleau & Chloe Lum (Seripop)
Jacqueline Huang Nguyen
Allison Katz
Jon Rafman

Atlantic
Jordan Bennett
Ursula Johnson
Eleanor King
Lisa Lipton
Zeke Moores

Artist bios and info on the curatorial panel can be viewed here.

The 2015 shortlist of the Sobey Art Award will be announced June 3. Work by the shortlisted artists will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, beginning September 26, with the winner being announced at a gala event in October.