Stephanie Comilang Wins 2019 Sobey Award

The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada  named Stephanie Comilang as the recipient of the 2019 Sobey Art Award. From the Ontario region, Stephanie Comilang’s video works follow Paraiso, a Tagalog speaking “drone” who documents Filipino diasporic experiences.

The Sobey Art Award recognizes Canadian artists who are forty years old or younger, selected by a jury of Canadian and international curators and gallery directors. The award represents the breadth of contemporary practices from Canada’s five geographical regions, selecting a shortlist that engages with a variety of ideas and approaches.

The four shortlisted artists for the prize Nicolas Grenier, Kablusiak, Anne Low and D’Arcy Wilson, were awarded $25,000 CAD.

The 2019 jury, chaired by National Gallery of Canada’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, is composed of Peter Dykhuis, Director/Curator, Dalhousie Art Gallery, for the Atlantic Provinces; Jo-Ann Kane, Curator, National Bank Collection, for the Quebec region; Swapnaa Tamhane, Independent Curator, Artist, and Writer, for the Ontario region; Lindsey Sharman, Curator, Art Gallery of Alberta, for the Prairies and the North region; Nigel Prince, Executive Director, Contemporary Art Gallery, for the West Coast and Yukon; and international juror, Henriette Bretton-Meyer, Curator, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The 2019 Sobey Art Award exhibition will be on view at the Art Gallery of Alberta until Sunday, January 5, 2020. Organized by Lindsey Sharman, Curator of the Art Gallery of Alberta, it presents more than 35 works by the five shortlisted artists, in a range of media – from video-based installations and audience participation to paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs.

Past Sobey Art Award grand prize winners include Brian Jungen, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Annie Pootoogook, Michel de Broin, Tim Lee, David Altmejd, Daniel Barrow, Daniel Young and Christian Giroux, Raphaëlle de Groot, Duane Linklater, Nadia Myre, Abbas Akhavan, Jeremy Shaw and Ursula Johnson. Kapwani Kiwanga received the 2018 Sobey Art Award.