Two Indigenous artists are among the finalists for Canada’s most prestigious art award, which includes a $100,000 grand prize. As of Oct. 2, their work is featured at the National Gallery of Canada in the Sobey Art Award exhibition.
Representing the Inuit and Secwépemc nations, these artists bring personal perspectives on land, language and cultural continuity to a national stage.
Their work challenges dominant narratives and colonial frameworks, offering reflections on Indigenous identity, history and resistance.
Tania Willard
In Snowbank and Other Investments (2022), Secwépemc artist Tania Willard, winner of the Pacific region, explores land rights and economic value.
Using photography, etching, ornamentation and dyed deer tails, she questions how colonial society assigns worth to land, labour and people.
Another piece, Surrounded/Surrounding (2018), was designed as both an outdoor firepit and an indoor exhibit.
The fire bowl was gifted to Queen’s University’s Indigenous Students Centre, where it’s regularly used.
Curators plan to use the fire pit outdoors in November to honour the artist’s intent for it to remain an active, community-centred work while it is at the gallery.
“This idea of connecting the gallery to the outdoors, using art as a way to spend time in my territory and learn from it, is part of healing from the trauma of colonization, which distances us from our land,” Willard said at the opening.
Willard brought pieces from her home in Secwepemcúl̓ecw—Secwépemc Nation territory in B.C.’s Interior—to the gallery in Ottawa.
The Oregon Grape Poems (2019) is a collaboration with her son, created by mashing Oregon grapes—berries that grow in their backyard—onto the canvas to produce organic textures.
More of Willard’s art can be found on her website, HERE.
regionality of the sobey art award
International juror Carla Acevedo-Yates addressed the tension artists face navigating post-colonial art spaces in the Sobey Art Award catalogue. “Official nation-state documentation fails to capture the intricacies of who we are and where we come from,” she said.
The Sobey award now recognizes six regions, with the Circumpolar region—once grouped with the Prairies—added last year to highlight the North’s distinct artistic voices.
The question remains why art from the Circumpolar region was only recently recognized independently.
At the opening, Sobey Art Foundation chair Rob Sobey said the change was overdue. “When we came to the conclusion it had to be done, we all thought this should have happened long ago,” he said. “It was the most natural and within budget thing to do.”
Tarralik Duffy
Representing the North is Tarralik Duffy, a multidisciplinary artist and writer from Salliq, Nunavut.
She plays with everyday objects and layers her work with meaning. Take The Great Wall of China Lily (2023), for example.
It plays on the name of a Canadian soy sauce brand and the Chinese landmark. Duffy uses the brand’s packaging as wallpaper, referencing its popularity as a condiment for traditional foods such as caribou.
Many of her works are titled in Inuktitut. One standout, Kuuka-Kuula (2025), is a stuffed leather sculpture resembling a Coca-Cola can, featuring the white Inuktitut syllabics for the soda—ᑯᒐ ᑯᓚ—in place of the classic logo.
Through her art, Duffy reflects on growing up Inuit in the North and the presence of colonial consumer goods. “We were colonized by a department store,” she told Nunatsiaq News reporter Nehaa Bimal, referring to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s historical influence in Inuit communities such as her hometown of Salliq.
More of Duffy’s art can be found on her Instagram, HERE.
Established by the Sobey Art Foundation in partnership with the National Gallery, the award celebrates contemporary Canadian art and excellence.
Willard and Duffy are both competing for the Sobey Art Award’s $100,000 grand prize, to be announced Nov. 8. Their work remains on view at the National Gallery of Canada until Feb. 8, 2026. The foundation will distribute $465,000 across six regions this year.