Six artists from across Canada have been shortlisted for the 2026 edition of the prestigious Sobey Art Award. They are Melaw Nakehk’o (representing the Circumpolar region), Samuel Roy-Bois (Pacific), Audie Murray (Prairies), Lotus L. Kang (Ontario), Caroline Monnet (Québec) and Shane Perley-Dutcher (Atlantic).
Now in its 23rd year, the nation’s top contemporary art prize awards the six finalists C$25,000 ($18,000) each with a grand prize of C$100,000 ($72,000) announced at a ceremony in Ottawa on 14 November. According to a joint announcement by the Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), an exhibition featuring works by the six shortlisted artists will be held at the gallery later this year. Each of the 24 longlisted artists not among the six finalists will receive C$10,000 ($7,200).
The shortlisted artists not only span Canadian geography, but also its cultural and aesthetic diversity, with four out of the six finalists of First Nations ancestry and others of Asian and African backgrounds. Much like the hybrid nation itself, the finalists’ oeuvre suggests a certain alchemy at work with striking transformations of materials and traditions.
“This year’s shortlisted artists represent a dynamic cross-section of contemporary visual practice,” Jonathan Shaughnessy, the director of curatorial initiatives at the NGC and chair of the 2026 Sobey Award jury, said in a statement. The finalists’ work spans textile art, film-making and sculpture. “Through innovative and compelling transformations of materials, their artworks shape and are shaped by deep personal, cultural, and material histories and experience.”
The Yellowknife-based finalist for the Circumpolar region, Melaw Nakehk’o, is a Dene/Dënesułińe artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice spans textile arts, film-making and land-based pedagogy. Integrating what they call “Dene ways of knowing” through soft sculptures sewn with caribou hide with documentary films, installations, digital art and moosehide tanning taught within community settings, they have sparked a revival and contemporising of traditional arts in the region.
Samuel Roy-Bois, the finalist for the Pacific region, is an acclaimed artist, professor at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus and a past winner of the Shadbolt Foundation’s Viva Award in 2021. His multidisciplinary practice encompasses installation, sculpture and photography, exploring the deconstruction of space and redefining the boundaries between art and exhibition spaces. His award-winning work has been exhibited internationally and is held in major Canadian collections, including the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal.
The Regina-based artist Audie Murray, the finalist from the Prairies region, is a Métis and Cree artist from the Flying Dust First Nation. Her multidisciplinary practice explores ancestral knowledge, memory and contemporary Indigenous life across media such as beadwork, drawing and installation, deploying traditional First Nations craft in a contemporary context. A recipient of the 2025 ohpinamake Prize, her acclaimed work has been exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Hessel Museum of Art.
The finalist from Ontario, Lotus L. Kang, is known for a practice that encompasses sculpture, photography and site-responsive installation, exploring themes of impermanence, inheritance and time. She draws from industrial and architectural forms, familial and social histories, poetry and non-human figures. The Sobey jury praised the fluidity of her work, which uses unstable, organic and structural forms that refuse to settle. She was featured in the Whitney Biennial in 2024 and has a major solo project in the Bvlgari Pavilion as a collateral exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale.
The Montréal-based multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet, the finalist for Québec, draws from her Anishinaabe and French ancestry to create abstractions of traditional crafts like embroidery that are at once contemporary and timeless. Her work has been featured in major international exhibitions—including the Whitney Biennial and at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston—and is held in prestigious permanent collections worldwide.
Shane Perley-Dutcher, the finalist for the Atlantic region, is a Wolastokew (Maliseet) visual artist and metalsmith from New Brunswick who transforms traditional Wabanaki ash basketry by combining soft metals with organic materials like cedar, spruce and ash. The artist creates unique jewellery from hybrid forms as well as imaginative sculptures by weaving metal splints into mixed-media baskets.
“Every year, the Sobey Art Award reminds us of the incredible depth, resilience and talent in Canada’s contemporary art community,” Rob Sobey, the chair of the Sobey Art Foundation, said in a statement. “This year’s shortlisted artists are not just experts of their practice; they are vital cultural voices challenging how we see history, environment and identity.”
Recent winners of the Sobey Art Award include Tania Willard, who won it last year, Nico Williams (2024), Kablusiak (2023), Divya Mehra (2022) and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (2021). The renowned sculptor Brian Jungen was the award’s inaugural winner in 2002.
