Tania Willard, Surrounded/Surrounding with Woodpile Score, 2018. Wood-burning fire ring, laser-etched leather, wood and vinyl transfer, dimensions variable. Installation view, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. © Tania Willard. Photo: Rachel Topham

Rooted in Secwépemc knowledge, values and aesthetics, Tania Willard’s multifaceted practice challenges us to expand our understanding of contemporary art and the role of the artist. She harvests berries to make ink drawings, harnesses wind and fire to compose poems and operas, and builds worlds with her BUSH Gallery collaborators. In the face of precarity, scarcity and conflict, her work offers a model of sustainability, abundance and connection. Above all, she amplifies the power of the land.

Jonathan Shaughnessy, Director, Curatorial Initiatives, National Gallery of Canada; and Chair, 2025 Sobey Art Award Jury

 

Sobey Art Award

The Sobey Art Award, Canada’s pre-eminent award for contemporary Canadian art, was created in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation. It is an annual prize given to an artist who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated.

In addition to the $100,000 prize awarded to the winner of the Sobey Art Award, each of the five short listed artists are awarded $25,000 and $10,000 is awarded to each of the remaining long listed artists.

Since its inception, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia organized and administered the Sobey Art Award and its accompanying exhibition. In 2016, the Sobey Art Foundation entered into a partnership with the National Gallery of Canada, which organizes and circulates the exhibition.