Artist Gabi Dao (BFA 2014) is one of five finalists nominated to the shortlist for this year’s prestigious Sobey Art Award.

The award is presented annually to a visual artist who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated. One nominee is chosen from each of five regions across Canada.

Joining Gabi (who represents West Coast and Yukon) on this year’s shortlist are artists Lorna Bauer (Quebec), Rémi Belliveau (Atlantic), Rajni Perera (Ontario) and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (Prairies and the North).

Each shortlisted artist is awarded $25,000. They will also have their work included in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada this fall.

The overall winner of the award will be announced in November, and awarded a grand prize of $100,000. Each of the 20 artists from the Sobey longlist — announced earlier in the spring — will receive $10,000.

To learn more about the Sobey Art Award, visit gallery.ca.

Gabi Dao

Based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, Vancouver artist Gabi Dao works across sculpture, installation, film and sound. Dialogues between historical and contemporary diaspora culture interweave these works, at times building specifically upon the experiences of her family’s Vietnamese-Chinese heritage. Key themes include individual sense of identity, migration and displacement, power plays, and the trauma of war, all presented in multiple truths. Her work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and festivals in Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles and Rotterdam.