Steven Shearer Wins C$100,000 Audain Prize, Canada's Top Visual Arts Honour
On September 23, 2023, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver hosted the announcement of the 2026 Audain Prize, a prestigious accolade in Canadian visual arts. Vancouver artist Steven Shearer is the recipient, earning a cash award of C$100,000 (approximately $71,000). Shearer is celebrated for his distinctive portraiture and photoconceptualism, which merges historical artistic influences with modern youth culture. He intends to use the prize funds to create new "mystery portraits" through body-scanning technology in his studio. His artwork has been showcased internationally, including venues like Tate Modern and the Venice Biennale. Established in 2004, the Audain Prize seeks to promote artists from British Columbia, with previous honorees such as Brian Jungen and Rebecca Belmore.
Key facts
- Steven Shearer won the 2026 Audain Prize, worth C$100,000 ($71,000)
- The prize was announced on 23 September in the ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
- The Audain Prize is in its 23rd year and is presented annually by the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, British Columbia
- Shearer is a Vancouver-based multi-disciplinary artist known for portrait paintings and photoconceptualism-influenced images of Generation X-era youth
- He represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2011 and showed at Tate Modern in London in 2005
- Shearer is represented by David Zwirner and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, which has held eight solo exhibitions of his work across Zürich, Seoul and New York
- He plans to re-invest the prize money in his studio, where he is working on "mystery portraits" using new body-scanning technology
- In 2021, seven of his billboard works for the Capture Photography Festival were removed from Vancouver's Arbutus Greenway by sponsor Pattison Outdoor Advertising before the festival opened
- The prize was established in 2004 by collector and philanthropist Michael Audain
- Past winners include Brian Jungen, Rebecca Belmore, Dana Claxton, Ian Wallace and James Hart
- Shearer will have a solo exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado next year
Entities
Artists
- Steven Shearer
- Michael Audain
- Brian Jungen
- Rebecca Belmore
- Dana Claxton
- Ian Wallace
- James Hart
- Emmy Lee Wall
Institutions
- Audain Prize
- Audain Art Museum
- Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
- Vancouver School of Art
- Emily Carr University of Art and Design
- Kwantlen Community College
- David Zwirner
- Galerie Eva Presenhuber
- Capture Photography Festival
- Tate Modern
- Venice Biennale
- Aspen Art Museum
- Pattison Outdoor Advertising
- The Art Newspaper
- Ocula
Locations
- Vancouver
- Canada
- British Columbia
- Whistler
- New York
- London
- United Kingdom
- Zürich
- Switzerland
- Seoul
- South Korea
- Venice
- Italy
- Colorado
- United States
- Arbutus Greenway