The 2026 Sobey Art Award brings together artists whose practices reflect diverse cultural, regional and material perspectives from across Canada.
This year’s nominees are creative talents from six regions of Canada (Circumpolar, Pacific, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic), and four of the finalists are Indigenous.
Melaw Nakehk’o, a multidisciplinary Dene-Dënesułińe artist from Yellowknife, was selected for the Circumpolar region. Her work is featured in a special exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Nakehk’o said the exhibition brings a Dene land-based worldview into spaces where Indigenous art and technology intersect.
After art school, Nakehk’o returned to the Northwest Territories, where she inherited her grandmother’s hide-tanning skills, and began working with a group of people to help spark a resurgence of hide tanning.
“Being a knowledge holder is very important to me as a Dene person,” she said. “I have knowledge that I share, and that’s a part of my life that I’m really proud of.”
Nakehk’o says hide tanning creates a direct relationship with the land, animals, hunters and harvesters. This connection made her increasingly aware of changes happening across the North.
“Through the work that I do, you are much more observant of how climate changes, or developments are affecting certain parts of the environment, and how that impacts our relationship to the animals,” she explained.
Nakehk’o’s caribou-hide sculptures reflect what she describes as “climate grief” in response to environmental change.
“We need to be more respectful to the nature,” she said. “So, my pieces are these distorted human and animal forms in using the caribou hide.”
Within her art Nakehk’o tries to describe a balance between humans and caribou, and her soft sculptures explore what happens when that balance is lost. Experimenting with new technology, including kinetic components and 3D modelling, Nakehk’o always works with traditional materials.
“The foundation of my artwork is caribou hide,” she said. “And being able to incorporate new types of media into my pieces, I can see it is still being around for my people.”
Nakehk’o believes new technology does not replace traditional knowledge, instead, it offers another way to carry that knowledge forward. One of her projects, presented in Venice and at Nuit Blanche in Toronto, combines a 360-degree film with VR.
“Through my artwork, I’m able to incorporate the essence of some of the stories that I heard growing up, and to share my culture, whether it’s digital, film, VR or my sculptures,” she said.
Audie Murray, a Regina-based Métis and Cree artist from Flying Dust First Nation, represents the Prairies region. Using beadwork, drawing, natural materials and installation, she explores ancestral knowledge and everyday life.
For the exhibition, Murray is presenting her artwork To Make Smoke installed directly onto the walls of the NGC.
“It’s smudge remnants, which is a charcoal,” she explained. “I use those as a pigment that is put onto the wall. I use water from the Ottawa River, and I put that over the smudge remnants to create kind of smoky effect on the wall.”
Describing her process, Murray almost renders her art mundane. It’s anything but.
“I’m responding to everyday life and my experiences in the world,” she said. “With this work to make smoke, it is like a continuance of the act of smudging, which is the burning of specific medicines, but the smudging takes place in everyday spaces – in my home, in my studio, it’s not so much like ceremony.”
Murray creates her art materials from natural elements, including plants.
“Right now, I’m using dried rose petals to make a watercolour pigment,” she said. “But I also work a lot with bead work as material, and repurposed items like old working gloves, old bras or socks.”
Although Murray usually works by hand, she uses video and recognizes the possibilities offered by contemporary media.
“Video as a form of documentation is really useful and generative,” she said. “I really appreciate that there’s experimental aspects to that.”
At the heart of Murray’s practice is an understanding that culture is constantly evolving.
“Culture is not static,” she said. “It shifts, it moves, and it’s important that we are able to shift and move with it and have a good heart,” she concluded.
The six shortlisted artists will have their work featured in a special exhibition at the NGC, culminating in a November celebration when the winner will be announced.