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Last week, the Sobey Art Award announced its shortlist of six artists from across the country. The contemporary art prize awards shortlisted artists $25,000 and a chance to exhibit at the National Gallery, with the winner receiving a $100,000 grand prize.
While the acknowledgement is nice for Winnipeg’s Chukwudubem Ukaigwe, he’s viewing everything in a very grounded perspective.
“Being shortlisted or being a finalist from a particular region within the country doesn’t mean that I have the best work from the region, you know?” he says, noting that the six finalists are each chosen from distinctive regions outlined by the prize. “For me personally, it’s kind of like an acknowledgement of my work and things that have been created in silence.”
Ukaigwe’s wide-ranging artistic practice includes performance art, sculpture, painting, video and writing, and while they may be forged in the silence of a studio, each of these pieces speak to each other, creating a throughline through his career and oeuvre.
“I think contemporary art should be a conversation, not just my work,” says Ukaigwe. “What I mean by that is I feel like there’s a tendency for – or there is a possibility for – artists to just regurgitate things and spit out and become like an echo chamber of rhetoric.”
“Hence, that’s why my work has a higher range or a broad range of concerns.”
Ukaigwe’s work is not only shaped by the other mediums he works in, with sound shaping sculpture or words informing performance. He intentionally holds space for collaboration on works and in interpretation, whether it be from the many collaborators that he interacts with in Winnipeg or with the audiences who engage with his art.
“When something leaves the studio, it’s no longer your own totally,” explains Ukaigwe, who thinks about this shared nature of author as a “splintered authorship”. “And there’s a beauty in that. There’s a beauty of expansion. There's [sic] some people who can take the work to places I never thought of taking it to, who can expand it beyond my reach.”
Despite the splintered authorship of his works, Ukaigwe says that his community of artists from Winnipeg and beyond have shown him overwhelming love and support for having received this honour. He’s also looking forward to the chance to showcase that splintered authorship on a national stage. “[Being] able to present my work and the new directions I’m taking, to me is winning already,” he smiles, noting that the money will also help him to upgrade his artistic output. “I’m going to pour that generously back int my practice. It’s going to have a big revamp.”
Ukaigwe’s National Gallery exhibit will begin in October and run until February of 2026. The winner of the Sobey Art Award will be announced in November.
