The Sobey Art Foundation, Scotiabank and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia have announced the 25 semi-finalists for the Sobey Art Award 2007.
The $50,000 award is an annual prize for Canadian contemporary artists under the age of 40. It is given to an artist who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated.
A panel of curators which represent each of the five regions is meeting this week to bring the long list of 25 artists down to a shortlist of five. They will choose the winner in October at the award ceremony in Halifax.
The Atlantic Canadian semi-finalists are: Moncton artist Jean-Denis Boudreau, New Brunswick artist Alexandra Flood, Nova Scotia sculptor Vanessa Paschakarnis, Nova Scotia painter Mathew Reichertz, who was also nominated in 2006, and Nova Scotia painter Mitchell Wiebe. Curator for the region is Robin Metcalfe, curator and director of Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery.
The other semi-finalists are: Quebec, David Altmejd, Michel De Broin, Raphaëlle de Groot, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Yannick Pouliot (curator Bernard Lamarche); Ontario, Michael Belmore, Shary Boyle, Frank Shebageget, Andrew Wright and Kevin Yates (curator Melanie Townsend); Prairies and the North, Robin Arseneault, Daniel Barrow, Sarah Anne Johnson, Rachelle Viader Knowles and Graeme Patterson (curator Dan Ring) and West Coast, Scott McFarland, Luanne Martineau, Damian Moppett, Steven Shearer and Ron Terada (curator Helga Pakasaar).
June 2007 – Copyright Vanessa Paschakarnis
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