Tania Willard Wins Canada’s Sobey Art Award
59Nov. 11, 2025
Tania Willard, an artist of Secwépemc descent known forher work centering Indigenous basketry, has been named the winner of the 2025Sobey Art Award. Presented annually by Ottawa’sNational Gallery of Canada(NGC) in partnership with the Sobey Art Foundation, the prize is widely regarded as Canada’s most prestigious contemporary art honor. It is also one of the world’s largest, awarding C$100,000 (about $71,000) to its winner.
Willard, who lives on the Neskonlith reserve in the British Columbia Interior, represented the Pacific region as one of six finalists for the prize. Runners-up Hangama Amiri (representing the Atlantic region), Tarralik Duffy (Circumpolar), Sandra Brewster (Ontario), Swapnaa Tamhane (Quebec), and Chukwudubem Ukaigwe (Prairies) will each receive C$25,000 (roughly $18,000), while twenty-fourlonglistedartists will be awarded C$10,000 ($7,100) apiece.
“Rooted in Secwépemc knowledge, values and aesthetics, Tania Willard’s multifaceted practice challenges us to expand our understanding of contemporary art and the role of the artist,” said Jonathan Shaughnessy, director of curatorial initiatives at the NGC and chair of the 2025 Sobey Art Award jury, in a statement. “She harvests berries to make ink drawings, harnesses wind and fire to compose poems and operas, and builds worlds with her BUSH Gallery collaborators. In the face of precarity, scarcity, and conflict, her work offers a model of sustainability, abundance, and connection. Above all, she amplifies the power of the land.”
In a statement of her own, Willard celebrated Indigenous peoples for “carrying our languages and knowledges despite so many challenges that continue today—our culture is our power.” She went on, “I want to also thank the land, all lands that hold us. I also want to advocate and encourage all people to spend time with art—we need more of it in our lives, especially now in the face of austerity and injustice around the world.”
The work of Willard and that of the five shortlisted artists is on view through February 8, 2026, at the NGC.