Taqralik Partridge in running with 5 other artists from across Canada for $100,000 prize
A Kuujjuaq-born artist is shortlisted for the 2024 Sobey Art Award, a national prize that recognizes contemporary visual artists.
“I’m just super happy that I got to be shortlisted,” said Taqralik Partridge, a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Ottawa, in an interview.
The award was created in 2002 to promote new developments in contemporary visual art and draw attention to Canadian artists and their work.
Partridge is the finalist representing the circumpolar region. Her name appears alongside six others selected from a long-list of 30 artists from six regions across Canada.
Other shortlisted artists are Judy Chartrand (Pacific); Rhayne Vermette (Prairies); June Clark (Ontario); Nico Williams (Québec); and Mathieu Légar (Atlantic).
The work of the six finalists from across Canada will be displayed at the National Gallery of Canada from Oct. 4 until March 16, 2025.
The winner will receive $100,000, but everybody on the shortlist will receive $25,000. Everybody who made the long-list $10,000, according to the gallery website.
The Sobey Art Award added the circumpolar region this year, which includes artists from Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut.
“I was surprised to be honest at the beginning but I was really happy to be in that cohort with some really awesome artists,” said Partridge about the addition of the category.
“I feel like I was really honoured to be in that category with them, especially as it was the first time that there was a circumpolar region recognized in the award categories.”
Partridge’s work, titled Apirsait, is featured as a part of a travelling exhibit called Radical Stitch that consists of more than 101 works by 44 First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists from Canada and the United States.
Apirsait is a series of mixed-media glass beadwork panels featuring Arctic creatures like caribou, walrus and Arctic fox.
The winner of the award is to be announced later this year at a celebration on Nov. 9.
