OTTAWA, Feb. 4, 2016 /CNW/ - The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) launched today a call for nominations for the 2016 Sobey Art Award, Canada's prestigious contemporary art prize. Agents and institutions have until March 4, 2016, to submit artist nominations. The Award will distribute a total of $100,000 to Canadian artists aged 40 and under who have exhibited professionally within the last 18 months. The winner of the top award will receive $50,000, each of the four finalists will receive $10,000, and the other long-listed artists will receive $500 each.
The Award's 2016 long list of nominees will be announced in April and the short list in June. An exhibition of works by the five short-listed artists will be presented at the National Gallery of Canada from October 6, 2016 to February 5, 2017. The winner of the 2016 Sobey Art Award will be announced at the Gallery during a gala event in November 2016.
All nominations will be reviewed by the 2016 curatorial jury panel, chaired by National Gallery of Canada's Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Josée Drouin-Brisebois. The panel will be composed of one distinguished representative from each of Canada's five regions: the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies and the North, and the West Coast and Yukon, and will include for the first time one international juror. They will review all nominations and establish the long and short lists as well as the winner of the Award.
For more information, visit gallery.ca/sobey or write to [email protected] or to Sobey Art Award, c/o National Gallery of Canada, 380, Sussex Drive, P.O. Box 427, Station A, Ottawa, ON, K1N 9N4.
In 2002, the Sobey Art Foundation created the largest art award for a Canadian artist aged 40 or under. The National Gallery of Canada became the organizing institution for the Sobey Art Award in December 2015. Building on the success achieved by the Award's founding partner institution, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the partnership between the two institutions will chart an ambitious new global course for contemporary Canadian art.
Since its launch, the Sobey Art Award has profiled 300 Canadian artists through its long-list process. For recipients, the Sobey Art Award has become a mark of distinction that has steered the artists toward national and international recognition. Past award recipients include Brian Jungen, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Annie Pootoogook, Michel de Broin, Tim Lee, David Altmejd, Daniel Barrow, Daniel Young & Christian Giroux, Raphaëlle de Groot, Duane Linklater, and Nadia Myre. The 2015 Sobey Art Award winner, Abbas Akhavan, was announced on October 28.
About the Sobey Art Foundation
The Sobey Art Foundation was established in 1981 with a mandate to carry on the work of entrepreneur and business leader, the late Frank H. Sobey, to collect and preserve representative examples of 19th- and 20th-century Canadian art. The Foundation has since broadened its scope to support contemporary Canadian art through the Sobey Art Award. In one of the finest private collections of its kind, the Sobey Art Foundation has assembled outstanding examples from Canadian masters such as Cornelius Krieghoff, Tom Thomson and J.E.H. MacDonald. The collection is housed in an intimate setting at Crombie House, the former home of Frank Sobey and his wife Irene, in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Tours are regularly scheduled throughout the summer months and by appointment year round.
About the National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada is home to the most important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian art. The Gallery also maintains Canada's premier collection of European Art from the 14th to the 21st century, as well as important works of American, Asian and Indigenous Art and renowned international collections of prints, drawings and photographs. In 2015, the National Gallery of Canada established the Canadian Photography Institute, a global multidisciplinary research centre dedicated to the history, evolution and future of photography. Created in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada has played a key role in Canadian culture for well over a century. Among its principal missions is to increase access to excellent works of art for all Canadians. For more information, visit gallery.ca and follow us on Twitter @gallerydotca.
SOURCE National Gallery of Canada
For all media enquiries, please contact: Josée-Britanie Mallet, Senior Media and Public Relations Officer, National Gallery of Canada, 613 990 6835 / [email protected]; Bernard Doucet, Sobey Art Foundation, 902 752 8371 ext 2301, 902 921 1755 / [email protected]
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