Joi T. Arcand is one of the five finalists for the 2018 Sobey Art Award. ᐁᑳᐏᔭᐋᑲᔮᓰᒧ (ekawiya akayasimo), 2017, on-site installation at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. A short video features her work exploring the Cree language, envisioning the language and the culture flourishing despite centuries of suppression by settler colonialism.

Joi T Arcand - Prix Sobey pour les arts 2018. Membre de la Nation crie de Muskeg Lake, en Saskatchewan (Traité no 6), Joi T. Arcand est actuellement artiste en résidence au Wanuskewin Heritage Park de Saskatoon.

Arcand has become known for creating public signage in Plains Cree syllabics. Arcand has said, as a person just walking down the street, I started to see the shapes of the syllables in traffic signs…So I just decided — what would the world look like through this lens?

The stakes in the Sobey Art Award have been raised significantly for its 2018 edition—doubled, in fact. And now we know who is in the running for them.

Nova Scotian artist Ursula Johnson's remarkable practice is built on memory and community. At this time when Canadians are celebrating and challenging the memory of nationhood, Johnson's work embodies a considered, critical, yet generous lens through which multiple histories and communities may be considered.

Johnson’s installation at the Sobey Art Award exhibition at U of T’s Art Museum is Moose Fence, based on fencing used to prevent animals from straying into traffic. NOW spoke with Johnson about the piece and her wider practice.

Ursula Johnson, winner of the 2017 Sobey Art Award is interviewed by Helen Mann of CBC’s As it Happens. Johnson is a performance artists who uses traditional practices like weaving. Much of her work focuses on colonialism and her Indigenous heritage. Johnson discusses how her great-grandmother, a queen of Mi'kmaq basketry, influenced her art practice.

Ursula Johnson is a performance and installation artist of Mi’kmaw First Nation ancestry and winner of the 2017 Sobey Art Award. Johnson explores various mediums including performance art, sculpture, music and printmaking, while utilizing delegated performers as well as collaborative processes in the making of new works. Central Art Garage Gallery News.

Ursula Johnson, a performance and installation artist of Mi’kmaw First Nation ancestry, has been shortlisted for the 2017 Sobey Art Award. Johnson is interested in topics of identity, not only Indigenous identity but also queer identity, and the idea of stereotypes or stereotype perpetuation. The award ceremony will take place at the National Gallery of Canada. Central Art Garage News.