The Sobey Art Award is an incredible showcase demonstrating the continuing impact of contemporary art on Canadian society. I’m grateful to the hard-working jurors of the 2022 Sobey Art Award. We look forward to celebrating these contemporary artists while hosting the upcoming Sobey Art Award exhibition and gala award ceremony at the National Gallery.
All nominations have been reviewed by the curatorial jury panel, chaired by the National Gallery of Canada’s Director and CEO, Sasha Suda. The panel is composed of one distinguished representative from each of Canada’s five regions: the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies and the North, and the West Coast and Yukon, and also includes two international jurors. They review all nominations and establish the long and short lists as well as the winner of the award.
CHAIR
Sasha Suda, PhD
Director and CEO
National Gallery of Canada
Sasha Suda was appointed Director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada in February 2019. She is passionate about revitalizing the Gallery’s relevance to audiences across Canada and beyond, bridging cultures, engendering diversity and perspective, and unleashing the power of public institutions.
As Jury Chair, Sasha is thrilled to collaborate with some of Canada's leading curators to consider the work of the country's emerging voices in contemporary art. As the Gallery continues its commitment to nurturing interconnections across time and place, the Sobey Art Award is the perfect invitation to start with where we are, and consider those voices that contribute to what Canada is now and tomorrow.
Photo: David Dahms
ATLANTIC
Laura Ritchie
Director
Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) Art Gallery
Laura Ritchie is Director of the Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has a B.A. Art History from Mount Allison University, and an M.A. in Art History from Western University. She is a fellow of the Getty Leadership Institute’s NextGen, Executive Education for the Next Generation of Museum Leaders.
Ritchie has worked in collections, exhibitions, and visual arts administration with Canadian art organizations such as the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the New Brunswick Crafts Council, the New Brunswick Arts Board, Museum London, the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, and the Commonwealth Association of Museums. Formerly Head of Exhibitions and Collections Management at the Art Gallery of Alberta, and Curator at the Kelowna Art Gallery, she currently serves as President of University and College Art Galleries Association of Canada (UCAGAC).
Photo: Guillaume Simoneau
QUEBEC
Cheryl Sim
Managing Director and Curator
PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art
Cheryl Sim is Managing Director and Curator at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, as well as an artist and scholar. Her work has been greatly informed by artist-run culture. Her most recently curated exhibitions include GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono / The art of John and Yoko (2019), and RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting (2020) both of which garnered critical acclaim.
Sim’s own video and installation work has been presented in exhibitions and festivals across North America and Europe. She has a PhD in Études et pratiques des arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and her book Wearing the Cheongsam: Dress and Culture in a Chinese Diaspora was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019.
Photo: Gun Roze
ONTARIO
Rui Mateus Amaral
Independent curator and curator at the
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
Rui Mateus Amaral is an independent curator, as well as adjunct curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Toronto. He has curated solo exhibitions with artists Félix González-Torres, Carlos Bunga, Eduardo Basualdo, Eric N. Mack, Iris Häussler, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Ryan Gander and Eva Kot’átková, among others.
Together with Daisy Desrosiers and November Paynter, Amaral co-founded MOCA Toronto’s triennial, Greater Toronto Art, and co-curated its inaugural edition in 2021. He has consulted on projects for the Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Art Foundation, Art Toronto, and Chanel. His writing has appeared in Artforum International and Momus, as well as several artist publications. He has an M.F.A. from OCAD University.
Photo: Amber Christensen
PRAIRIES AND NORTH
John G. Hampton
Executive Director and CEO
MacKenzie Art Gallery
John G. Hampton is Executive Director and CEO of the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Oskana Ka’aseteki, Regina, Treaty 4 Territory. Hampton is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and grew up in Regina.
Hampton has a B.A. in Intermedia Art from the University of Regina (2009), and an M.V.S. in Curatorial Studies from the University of Toronto (2014). Hampton has previously held positions as Executive Director of the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon, Artistic Director of Trinity Square Video in Toronto, and Curator at the artist-run centre Neutral Ground in Regina.
Photo: Lauren D. Zbarsky
WEST COAST AND YUKON
Elliott Ramsey
Curator
The Polygon Gallery
Elliott Ramsey is Curator of The Polygon Gallery, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ First Nations, and has an M.A. in Comparative Media Arts from Simon Fraser University.
Ramsey’s experiences as both mixed-race and gender-nonbinary inform ongoing research into identity performance and formation, representations of hybridity and multiplicity in the visual arts, queerness, and feminism. In 2021, Ramsey curated Interior Infinite, an international group exhibition on self-portraiture through masquerade and disguise. Ramsey is a member of the Black Curators Forum, and an alumnus of the Professional Alliance for Curators of Color.
Photo: © 2013 Museum Associates/LACMA
INTERNATIONAL
Franklin Sirmans
Director
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
Franklin Sirmans is Director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), where he organized the solo exhibition Toba Khedoori (2017), and was co-curator of The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art (2018). From 2010 to 2015, he was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), organizing exhibitions including Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada (2015–2016), Variations: Conversations in and around Abstract Painting (2014–2015), and Ends and Exits: Contemporary Art from the Collections of LACMA and The Broad Art Foundation (2013).
Prior to this, he was Curator of Modern and Contemporary art at The Menil Collection in Houston. In addition, he served on the curatorial advisory committee for MoMA PS1 (2005–2006), and was Artistic Director of the Prospect.3 New Orleans contemporary art festival (2012–2014). In 2007, he received the David C. Driskell Prize, a U.S. award honouring contributions to the field of African-American art.