The only Atlantic Canadian in the running for Canada’s biggest art prize is from Halifax

Today, the Sobey Art Award, the biggest prize in Canadian visual art, announced its 2023 shortlist—a five-artist rundown of the most exciting creatives in the country—all of whom are vying for the prize’s $100,000 purse. Among them is none other than Halifax’s Séamus Gallagher, an artist who has been making waves in the city with their candy-coloured video, photography and virtual-reality-based works since 2018.

Gallagher’s resume to date is impressive stuff: Their pop-art-y photos ringing the climate crisis alarm and VR art showcasing the versatility of drag have netted them a full ride scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University, along with awards like NSCAD’s prestigious Starfish award and the national 1st art! Award.

It was a drag-based piece, in fact, that caught the Sobey jury’s attention: “One of the series that I did submit was A Slippery Place, which was my NSCAD thesis work. It was this 3D modelling: Creating a series of self-portraits where I create the sets out of video game environments, and then perform within them using a 3D rendering, and then converting it to paper templates, so I can then print it out and cut it and wear it for the photos,” Gallagher told The Coast in April, when their presence on the award long list was announced. The piece is a drag-fuelled funhouse, Lynchian in look and liberated in representation. This injection of drag into high art might be Gallagher’s signature: “I think that’s why I like drag: Because it can exist in so many different forms, where all of it is important. And I think what you’re able to say within a white cube is different than what you’re able to say in a club,” they told The Coast in the same piece.

One of the artworks Gallagher submitted to The Sobey Art Award. Credit: SUBMITTED

Alongside Gallagher, the artists Michèle Pearson Clarke, Anahita Norouzi, Kablusiak and Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill are all part of the 2023 Sobey shortlist. Work by each artist will be on view at Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada From Oct. 13, 2023 until March 3, 2024, as part of the annual Sobey showcase. The prize’s grand winner will be announced in November.