Sara Angelucci completed her BA at the University of Guelph and her MFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She has exhibited her photography across Canada notably exhibitions at the Art Gallery of York University, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Le Mois de la Photo in Montreal and the St. Mary’s University Art Gallery in Halifax. Her work has been included in exhibitions worldwide and she has participated in artist residencies at the Art Gallery of Ontario, NSCAD (Halifax), the Banff Centre, and at Biz-Art in Shanghai. Angelucci has been the recipient of numerous grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council. In 2016 she received the prestigious Chalmers Fellowship from the OAC. She is an Adjunct Professor of Photography at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto  and is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery.

Nominated by Shannon Anderson.

Nicolas Baier (b. 1967, Montreal, QC) is a conceptual artist who began his career in the early 1990s. His work is characterized by innovative use of technology including scanning, microscopic photography and scientific computer imaging programs. One of Canada’s most celebrated artists, Baier’s existentialist approach expands our understanding of the photographic. Nicolas Baier’s works are held in public and private collections including National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Solo museum exhibitions include Pareidolias at Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and the National Gallery of Canada in 2009-2010.

Nominated by Marc Mayer.

Sara Cwynar (Vancouver, BC, 1985) lives and works in New York. Her work in photography, video and installation involves a constant archiving and re-presentation of collected visual materials. She holds an MFA from Yale University and a BDes from York University. Past projects include a commission for the Performa Biennial, New York (2021), “S/S 23”, Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam (2023) “Apple Red, Grass Green, Sky Blue, ICA Los Angeles (2022)” “Source,” Remai Modern (2021),  “L’Image Volée,” Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2016); and “Greater New York,” MoMA PS1, Queens, NY (2015/16). Cwynar’s works are held in the collections of The MoMA, New York, the Centre Pompidou, Paris; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; and the National Gallery of Canada among others. In 2024 and 2025 she will present new solo exhibitions at 52 Walker in New York and ICA Boston in Boston, MA.

Nominated by Tatum Dooley.

Clara Gutsche has worked as a photographer, educator, and critic since she immigrated to Montreal from St. Louis in 1970. She uses the view camera to explore personal relationships through portraiture, and cultural values through urban landscapes and architectural interiors. Major exhibitions include: the Centaur Gallery (1973), Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (1973, 1975, 1979, 1995), the Yajima/Galerie (1980), the Canadian Centre for Architecture (1992), the Musée d’Art de Joliette (1998), the Center  for Creative Photography, Tucson (2000), the Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi (2001), VU, Québec (2005), and OPTICA (2022). Her critical writing has been published in Photo communiqué (1983, 1984), Vanguard (1984), C Magazine (1988), Canadian Art (1995) and Chapter 5 in Photogenic Montreal: Activisms and Archives in a Post-Industrial City (2021).

Nominated by Zoë Tousignant.

For over fifty years, Thaddeus Holownia has approached his art form with a gentle but persistent nudge to be mindful of our imprint on the land. He is known for his long-term projects, transformed over periods, cycles, and seasons, in which he researches the natural processes of life and the inevitability of change. A keen observer of the environment, his work expresses a deep concern for nature. His reflections are poetic and subtle, meant to call our attention to how we are transformed by ideas, compromises, and ethics. He returns to a subject over years, even decades, and creates a photographic register of the transformation. He is a Research Professor in the Pierre Lassonde School of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University, where he taught for over four decades.

Nominated by Meeka Walsh.

Barry Pottle, raised in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, NL, and now based in Ottawa, ON, has made a profound impact on the exploration of Urban Inuit life through his photography. He depicts the essence of everyday moments, from shared country food gatherings to the effects of global warming on ice. “The camera,” he shares, “allows me to explore connection and continuity with my heritage and culture.” Through authentic portrayal, Pottle's work challenges narratives of disappearance, highlighting the vibrancy of contemporary Inuit culture. His photography, acclaimed and exhibited widely, fosters understanding and appreciation of Inuit heritage while presenting history in an innovative and compassionate light.

Nominated by Mireille Eagan.

Wang was born in Taiwan and has resided in Montreal since 2002, where he received MFA degree from Concordia University. His work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne Switzerland, Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Aperture in New York and Darling Foundry in Montreal. Wang was the recipient of le Prix Louis-Comtois in 2020 and the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography in 2017. Wang was awarded public art competitions including Montreal City Hall, Verdun Hospital, and REM Panama Train Station. Wang’s work has been seen in collections including: Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, National Gallery of Canada, Hydro Quebec, Caisse de dépôt et placement, Musée de l’Elysée Lausanne.

Nominated by Henry Heng Lu.

Shellie Zhang (b. 1991, Beijing, China) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. By uniting both past and present iconography with the techniques of mass communication, language and sign, Zhang explores the contexts and construction of a multicultural society by disassembling approaches to tradition, gender, history, migration and popular culture. She creates images, objects and projects in a wide range of media to explore how integration, diversity and assimilation is implemented and negotiated, and how manifestations of these ideas relate to lived experiences. Zhang is interested in how culture is learned and sustained, and how the objects and iconographies of culture are remembered and preserved.

Nominated by Kanika Anand