Esker Foundation

Huge congratulations to all shortlisted artists!

Especially shout out to Samuel Roy-Bois and Caroline Monnet.

🎉Congratulations to the six shortlisted artists of the Sobey Art Award 2026 🎉

◼️ Melaw Nakehk'o (Circumpolar)
◻️ Samuel Roy-Bois (Pacific)
◼️ Audie Murray (Prairies)
◻️ Lotus L. Kang (Ontario)
◼️ Caroline Monnet (Quebec)
◻️ Shane Perley-Dutcher (Atlantic)

Mark your calendar! 🗓️ Works by the six finalists will be on view at the Gallery from September 4, 2026 to January 4, 2027. 🏆 The winner will be announced on November 14, 2026.

For more details about the finalists and the independent jury: https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/sobey-art-award/artists-2026

👏 Congratulations to all! 👏

🐚🦭 FRIDAY 22 MAY, 6-9PM 🦭🐚
Celebrate the launch of our Spring/Summer Exhibitions ⬇️

ᐃᔨ – Eyes – Shirley Moorhouse
May 23 - August 23, 2026

“My artwork speaks from my lived experience as it connects outwards to my family, community, all living creatures, the Earth, and the Universe.”

– Shirley Moorhouse

When she was born, Shirley Moorhouse’s maternal Grandmother, Anana, named her ᐃᔨ (E-Ye-I) in Inuktitut, meaning Eyes. As a young child, she watched her extended family create many items of form, function, and beauty. She has been creating her own artwork for over 30 years, driven by curiosity and a desire to share her stories.

This exhibition showcases Moorhouse’s innovative art practice, from her earliest pieces to new and recently restored artworks. Moorhouse is renowned for her distinctive wall hangings, which incorporate embroidery, beading, and smoke-tanned caribou hide, along with unconventional materials and found objects. Her vibrant imagery delves into complex themes, including environmental stewardship, resource extraction, geopolitics, spirituality, and cultural continuity. Through her work, Moorhouse also extends the invitation “to reflect, to dream, and to celebrate the beauty and mysteries of life.”

Circulated by The Rooms, St John, NL.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Zadie Xa with Benito Mayor Vallejo

Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything

23 May-23 August 2026

Zadie Xa creates vivid, immersive installations that incorporate a wide range of materials and media, including painting, textiles, sculpture, light,
and sound. Often these installations offer a space for shared reflection on larger spiritual practices and intergenerational storytelling. Informed by
her Korean heritage and her upbringing on the West Coast, Xa’s work weaves together narratives of interspecies communication, mythology,
shamanism, and folklore with diasporic identity and marine ecology.

Organized and developed by the Power Plant, Toronto and PHI, Montréal.