Sobey Art Award 2020 – West Coast and Yukon

Photo: Yael Salomonowitz

Michele Di Menna
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Born in Vancouver, Michele Di Menna lives and works in Vancouver and Berlin. She studied at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and Städelschule (Frankfurt).

Di Menna’s artistic practice centres on ideas of ephemerality and fluidity, incorporating performance, collage, sculpture, video, sound, text and installation. Repurposing is a central aspect of her work: bricks from an installation become instruments in a sound piece, a collage inspires a video, a performance yields a papier-mâché sculpture. Her performances are thematic and narrative-based, with an introduction, climax and ending.

Her work has been presented internationally at Galerie Kamm (Berlin), Johan Berggren Gallery (Malmö), Museo Apparente (Naples), Cattedrale, Istituto Svizzero (Rome), Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture (Maastricht), Andrea Rosen Gallery (New York), Museum Abteiberg (Germany), and Kunsthalle Vienna, among others. She has received residential scholarships from SoART Millstättersee (Austria), Fogo Island Arts, and Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia (Germany).

Bell (2), 2018, ceramic, glaze, steel, vinyl, 31.5 cm x 69.5 cm diameter. Courtesy of the artist

Blushing Butts, 2016, acrystal, fiberglass, acrylic paint, lacquer. Outdoor performance on the Kleinen Weser, near Künstlerhaus Bremen, Germany. Courtesy of the artist

Photo: Yuri Removski

Tsēmā Igharas
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Tsēmā Igharas is a member of the Tahltan First Nation. She has a B.F.A. from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and an Interdisciplinary Master's degree in Art, Media and Design from OCAD University.

Potlatch methodology, Northwest Coast formline design, studies in visual culture, and time in the mountains all inform her practice. Her approach challenges colonial value systems and promotes strategies of resistance, connecting materials to mine sites, and bodies to the land.

Her work has been presented across Canada at Centre Clark (Montreal), grunt gallery (Vancouver), Kelowna Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and Luminato Festival Toronto, and Internationally in Mexico, Italy, Australia, the U.S. and Chile. She is a founding member of Tū’dese’chō Wholistic Indigenous Leadership Development (T-WILD), is arts and cultural lead for the Tene Mehodihi land-based education program, and runs the Potlatch School artist-in-residence program. In 2018, she won the Emily Award for outstanding ECUAD alumni.

The Wind Has Something to Say (2nd Series), 2019. Performance as part of Tene Mehodihi, a land-based education program, on Mount Edziza, British Columbia. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Sophia Biedka

Signs of life, 2018, rubble, blanket (melton, reflective tape), 92 cm x 60 cm x 152 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view of future generations at Artspace, Peterborough, Ontario. Photo: Mathew Hays

Photo: Kristin Rochelle Lantz

Carmen Papalia
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Carmen Papalia lives and works on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver). He has a B.A. from Simon Fraser University, and an M.F.A. with a focus in Art & Social Practice from Portland State University.

He uses organizing strategies and improvisation to address access to public space, art institutions, and visual culture. His work ranges from collaborative performance to public intervention, and his walks, workshops, and interventions are opportunities to model new standards and practices in the area of accessibility. He approaches museums as colonial enterprises that have benefitted from a tradition of cultural violence — platforms with valuable cultural resources that marginalize by design.

Papalia’s work has been featured at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Tate Liverpool, Grand Central Art Center (Santa Ana), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Gallery Gachet (Vancouver), among others. He received the 2014 Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary, and the 2013 Wynn Newhouse Award.

Mobility Device, 2013 – ongoing, collaborative performance. Courtesy of the artist. View of High Line Performance with Hungry March Band, New York City, 2019. Photo: Carlos David

Blind Field Shuttle, 2010 – ongoing, collaborative performance. Courtesy of the artist. View of performance in Ottawa, Ontario, 2017. Photo: Chris Snow

Photo: Alistair Maitland Photography

Joseph Tisiga
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Joseph Tisiga is a member of the Kaska Dena Nation, who lives and works in Whitehorse. He studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Although firmly rooted in painting and drawing, his work incorporates performance, photography, sculpture and installation in an exploration of colonial history, hybrid identities, and an evolving personal mythology. His practice features imagery inspired by his own social and philosophical influences, reflecting new approaches to storytelling.

He has exhibited across Canada at the National Gallery of Canada, Audain Art Museum, Yukon Arts Centre, Art Museum at the University of Toronto, and Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. He is a recipient of a REVEAL Indigenous Art Award, and was a finalist in the 2009 RBC Canadian Painting Competition. His work has been collected by the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Audain Art Museum, Royal Bank of Canada, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Grey Church Collection, Collection Majudia, and The Progressive Art Collection.

Lands Keeper and Property Designer, 2018, watercolour on paper, 55.9 x 76.2 cm. Private collection. Courtesy of the artist and Bradley Ertaskiran.

To Talk with Others, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Bradley Ertaskiran. Installation view at Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse, 2019–20. Photo: Yukon Arts Centre

Photo: Benito Mayor Vallejo

Zadie Xa
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Born in Vancouver, Zadie Xa lives and works in London, U.K. She received an M.A. in Painting from the Royal College of Art, and a B.F.A. from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Through performance, video, painting and textiles, she explores the overlapping and conflation of cultures that infuse notions of self.

Xa’s layered textile works examine contemporary identity through cultural sampling, informed by her own experience within the Asian diaspora. Her intricate, hand-sewn, wearable garments incorporate a range of imagery sourced from music, digital space, fashion, and art history. Her personalized semiotics propose new images and objects through a unique visual language articulating nuanced narratives of identity.

Xa’s work has been presented at several London galleries, including the Whitechapel Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Carl Freedman Gallery and Marcelle Joseph Projects, and at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore), Brussels Art Department, and Museo Gustavo de Maeztu (Spain).

Feedback Loops, 2019. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia, 2019–20. Photo: Andrew Curtis.

Child of Magohalmi and the Echoes of Creation, 2020, 40-minute live performance at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, U.K. Performed by and conceived with Yumino Seki. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Rob Harris.