Writer, multidisciplinary artist and designer Tarralik Duffy has been shortlisted for the 2025 Sobey Art Award. Representing the Circumpolar category, Duffy, who is from Salliq (Coral Harbour), NU, and based in Saskatoon, SK, is one of six artists from across Canada vying for the $100,000 annual prize.
Duffy made the shortlist alongside Tania Willard (Pacific); Chukwudubem Ukaigwe (Prairies); Sandra Brewster (Ontario); Swapnaa Tamhane (Québec) and Hangama Amiri (Atlantic). All six artists will receive $25,000 and be featured in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, ON, from October 3, 2025, to February 8, 2026. The winner of the award will be announced at an event on November 8, 2025.
Often drawing upon pop culture, Duffy’s work focuses on contemporary Inuit culture and her experience living in both the Arctic and the South. She incorporates drawing, photography, sculpture, textile, printmaking and digital mediums in her practice. In 2021, Duffy won the Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award, and her work has recently been featured in the following solo exhibitions: Let’s Go Quickstop at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, ON, and Gasoline Rainbows at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq in 2024, and Klik My Heels at Remai Modern in Saskatoon in 2025.
Duffy was among four Inuit artists longlisted for the Sobey Art Award this year, alongside Darcie Bernhardt, Shirley Moorhouse and Mathew Nuqingaq, CM. A number of Inuit artists have been nominated and have won the award in recent years, marking a significant increase since Annie Pootoogook became the first Inuk winner in 2006. Mark Igloliorte and Couzyn van Heuvelen were longlisted, in 2012 and 2018 respectively; Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory won the 2021 award, and was longlisted alongside Glenn Gear and Maureen Gruben. asinnajaq was longlisted in 2020 when the award was distributed amongst the entire longlist, and in 2023, Kablusiak became the first Inuvialuk to win several years after they were first shortlisted in 2019. Most recently, Taqralik Partridge was shortlisted for the 2024 award, and was longlisted alongside Eldred Allen, Jason Sikoak and Jessica Winters.
“Through paintings, drawings, textiles, video, sculpture and multidisciplinary installations, [the six shortlisted artists’] works capture the vitality of artmaking in this country today while touching on subjects pertinent to contemporary Canadian identity,” said Jonathan Shaughnessy, Director, Curatorial Initiatives, National Gallery of Canada, and Chair, 2025 Sobey Award Jury. “We’re excited to work with each of these artists and bring their richly diverse material practices together this fall for the always highly anticipated Sobey Award exhibition.”
This year's jury is composed of Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (Circumpolar); Zoë Chan (Pacific); Alyssa Fearon (Prairies); Betty Julian (Ontario); Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre (Québec); Rose Bouthillier (Atlantic); and Carla Acevedo-Yates (international).