URSULA JOHNSON - SOBEY ART AWARD 2017 WINNER
2017 Sobey Art Award Winner - Ursula Johnson is a performance and installation artist of Mi’kmaw First Nation ancestry. Artist Ursula Johnson has been exploring various mediums including performance art, sculpture, music and printmaking, while utilizing delegated performers as well as collaborative processes in the making of new works. Her performances are often place-based and employ cooperative didactic intervention.
On receiving the award, Ursula Johnson said:
"I am so grateful for winning this award! I have so much gratitude to have been selected to represent my region and to be in the company of such brilliant artists who are working in amazing ways! This gift of being the winner of the Sobey Art Award means that I will now have the tremendous opportunity to work on a larger scale and expand the reach of my work to a broader community while exploring more diversity in materials and content as well as beginning to create a network of collaborators internationally!"
For the first time in the history of the Sobey Art Award, 2017 saw women and Indigenous artists dominate the shortlist. The five finalists’ extraordinary works both challenged and impressed the jury. The selection committee was chaired by Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada.
The selection committee issued the following statement on Ursula Johnson’s remarkable achievement:
“Ursula Johnson was singled out for her strong voice, her generosity and collaborative spirit. Through her work, she redefines traditional materials and re-imagines colonized histories.”
The five 2017 Sobey Art Award finalists are: Raymond Boisjoly (West Coast and the Yukon); Jacynthe Carrier(Québec); Ursula Johnson (Atlantic); Divya Mehra (Prairies and the North); and Bridget Moser (Ontario).
Rob Sobey, Chair of the Sobey Art Foundation which funds the award, noted:
“On behalf of the Sobey Art Foundation, I would like to personally congratulate Ursula Johnson on winning the 2017 Award. Every year we are very proud to be able to shine a light on the work of all of the long-listed and short-listed Canadian artists. I want to thank and congratulate every one of them for their enduring contributions to our national culture.”
Ursula Johnson’s exhibition The Indian Truckhouse of High Art is upcoming at Central Art Garage.