Shortlist Announced for Sobey Art Prize

Sobey Art Foundation Announces National Short list for 2006 Sobey Art Award

Five artists in running for $50,000 prize



Halifax, NS - March 9, 2006 - Five finalists for the $50,000 Sobey Art

Award have been chosen by the national curatorial panel.  The five

finalists were selected from a list of 25 Canadian artists.



The Sobey Art Foundation is pleased to announce the short list for the

2006 Sobey Art Award:



West Coast:  Steven Shearer

Prairies / North: Annie Pootoogook

Ontario: Janice Kerbel

Quebec:  BGL

Atlantic Canada: Mathew Reichertz



The Sobey Art Award is a biennial award to be given to an artist under

40 who has had a show in a public or commercial art gallery within 18

months of being nominated. A panel of curatorial advisors, one from a

major gallery in each of five regions decides the shortlist: the

Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies and Western Canada, West Coast.



An exhibition at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, featuring works

by the five artists selected for the Sobey Art Award national short

list, will run from October 25th 2006 to January 7th 2007 and the

winner will be announced in November 2006.



THE CURATORIAL PANEL 2006:

The panel of curatorial advisors includes for the West Coast:

Christina Ritchie, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; The Prairies

and the North:  Patricia Deadman, former Curator of the Mackenzie Art

Gallery, Regina; Ontario: Wayne Baerwaldt, former director of the

Power Plant, Toronto; Quebec: Stéphane Aquin, Musée des beaux-arts de

Montréal; and the Atlantic:  Shauna McCabe, Acting Director of the

Rooms, St. John's.



THE ARTISTS:



Steven Shearer: Born 1968, New Westminster BC, lives in Vancouver.

BFA from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design and represented by

Gallerie Eva Presenhuber, Basel Switzerland.



Annie Pootoogook: Born 1969, Cape Dorset, Baffin Island.  Drawing

encouraged by the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative in Cape Dorset in

1997, represented by Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto.



Janice Kerbel: Born 1969, Don Mills, Ontario, lives in London, UK.

BFA from Emily Carr College of Art, MA in Fine Art with distinction

from Goldsmiths College, University of London.



BGL:  Artist Collective of Jasmin Bilodeau (1973), Sébastien Giguère

(1972), and Nicolas Laverdière (1972).  All three have Bachelors of

Visual Arts from Université Laval and live and work in Québec City.



Mathew Reichertz: Born 1969, Montreal, lives in Halifax.  BFA with

distinction from Concordia University and MFA from Nova Scotia College

of Art and Design.  National runner-up for the RBC painting prize in

2005.



For more information or to arrange an interview with the short listed

artists, Donald Sobey and/or members of curatorial advisory panel,

please contact:



Eleanor King

Sobey Art Award Coordinator

c/o The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

(902) 424 5169

(902) 981 8840



www.sobeyartaward.ca

info@sobeyartaward.ca



Eleanor King

Sobey Art Award Coordinator



c/o Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

1723 Hollis Street

PO Box 2262  Halifax  Nova Scotia

Canada B3J 3C8



phone (902) 424 5169

cell     (902) 981 8840

fax      (902) 424 7359



www.sobeyartaward.ca

info@sobeyartaward.ca