Sobey Art Award 2019 – Atlantic
D'Arcy
Wilson
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D’Arcy Wilson’s art laments past and ongoing colonial interactions with the natural world, from her perspective as a descendent of European settlers in Canada. Her interdisciplinary work has been presented across the country, most recently at the Dalhousie University Art Gallery (Halifax), Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton), The Rooms Art Gallery (St. John’s) and the Owens Art Gallery (Sackville), as well as M:ST, Flotilla, and Connexion ARC. Her work will also be included in FLOE: the 2019 Bonavista Biennale.
D’Arcy has an MFA from the University of Calgary, and a BFA from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. She is currently based in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, where she is Assistant Professor in the Visual Arts Program on Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Grenfell Campus.
Visit the artist’s website.
It was a privilege to be this year’s Atlantic juror for the Sobey Art Award. Selecting the five artists for the Atlantic longlist was challenging enough in its own right, due to the high quality of the works and practices presented for adjudication. It was thus a pleasure and an honour to champion all five artists to my national and international colleagues.
At the end of the process, D’Arcy Wilson was selected as the Atlantic candidate for the shortlist. She often uses herself as subject matter as a performative character — for example, taking on the role of The Memorialist over the past few years. In her work, Wilson critically explores layered cultural relationships to "nature" through the 19th-century lens of Western culture, academia, natural history museums, and zoological gardens — with the recognition that Settler thought can be estranged from the natural world in ways that Indigenous knowledge is not.
Photo: Chris Friel
Philippa
Jones
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Artist Philippa Jones has been based in St. John’s since 2009. Prior to moving to Canada, Jones completed a BFA and an MA in Interactive Art & Design at Falmouth University in the U.K. Jones’ diverse art practice includes printmaking, painting, pen-and-ink, animation, art games and interactive installations.
Central to Jones’ work is the exploration of constructed realities, active mythmaking, wonder and the inquisitive mind. Jones has exhibited widely at the National Gallery of Canada, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery (St. John’s), Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton), and Two Rivers Gallery (Prince George), among other venues. Jones is the Executive Director of Eastern Edge Gallery in St. John’s and a board member for Atlantis and the Atlantic Provinces Art Gallery Association (APAGA).
Photo: David Howells (2019)
Eleanor
King
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Eleanor King has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (Toronto), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Franklin Street Works (Connecticut), A.I.R. Gallery (Brooklyn), and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), among others. She has attended residencies at The MacDowell Colony (Plymouth, New Hampshire), Yaddo (Saratoga Springs), and SOMA Mexico.
Eleanor was an artist-in-residence in Glenfiddich, Scotland and a recipient of the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship. Her work has been featured in Canadian Art, C Magazine, and Art in America. She is a Fulbright Fellow, was previously shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, and has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia.
Photo: Charlotte Woolf
Logan
MacDonald
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Logan MacDonald is a queer visual artist and curator from Newfoundland. He identifies as a settler with European/Mi’kmaq ancestry. He is part of a unique, yet growing community of settler-identified, newly federally acknowledged Mi’kmaq from Newfoundland, who are looking at ways to revive their Mi’kmaq culture.
MacDonald holds a MFA from York University, and a BFA from Concordia University. His work has been exhibited in galleries worldwide, and has been featured in publications that include C Magazine, LTTR, and documenta 12. During 2017–2018, a body of his work toured extensively across Canada, exploring Indigenous identity in Canada.
Photo: Joe Flessa
Ericka
Walker
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Ericka Walker received a BSc from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MFA from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She lives and works in Nova Scotia.
Walker’s practice operates within vernacular histories of the graphic arts, in an effort to subvert the propaganda function of nostalgia in contemporary culture. Her print works and site-specific murals actively dispute the civilizing influence of nation-building in North America, past and present.
Walker exhibits widely throughout North America and internationally. Her prints are housed in multiple public and private collections, and have been selected for numerous awards.
Photo: Sharon Huget
