Announcing the laureates of the 2026 Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Visual Artists
October 21, 2026
The Hnatyshyn Foundation is thrilled to announce the laureates of our William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Visual Artists: Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, Pedro Barbáchano, and Michaëlle Sergile. We are also very pleased to present Finalists’ Prizes to Yen-Chao Lin, Jake Kimble, and Maria-Margaretta Cabana Boucher.
Established in 2015, the William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes support emerging visual artists who are deemed to have the determination and talent to contribute to the legacy of art in Canada. Presently, three Top Prizes of $10,000 each and three Finalists’ Prizes of $4,000 each are awarded annually.
In the spirit of conciseness, only brief biographical details are listed below. We encourage you to get discover the laureates and their work in more detail at https://www.rjhf.com/current-programs/saunderson-prize.
Top prizes
Pedro Barbáchano
Using archival research, Montreal-based artist Pedro Barbáchano traces the circulation of ancient Egyptian heritage to examine postcolonial diplomacy and the roles of photography and museum conservation in constructing touristic spectacle. His work has been presented at galleries across Canada and he was recently an artist-in-residence at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris and at Est-Nord-Est in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, QC.
Photo courtesy of Pedro Barbáchano.
Pedro Barbáchano, Corps Exposé. Installation view at Centre CLARK, Montreal, 2026. Courtesy of Pedro Barbáchano.
“Receiving a Saunderson Prize is deeply affirming and transformative. This prize has a very concrete impact, as it will allow me to conceptualize and plan the production of my first short film. Beyond its financial value, it has made me feel supported within the broader artistic community in Canada. This gives me confidence that my questions on cultural heritage, displacement, and the political lives of images can resonate beyond the specific histories from which they emerge. I am profoundly grateful to the Hnatyshyn Foundation and to the jury for this vote of confidence. It strengthens my commitment to continuing the slow, demanding, and often uncertain process of making art.”
Website: pedrobarbachano.com
Instagram: @pedrobarbachano
Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona
Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona is an Inuit multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Ottawa. Her work – including ceramics, prints, graphic art, and wall-hangings – is inspired by the art of her ancestors and often incorporates traditional Inuit stories told through a modern, feminist lens. She enjoys carrying imagery between mediums, while paying respect to traditional methods and expertise. Through her art, storytelling, skill-sharing amongst her community, and writing about Inuit art and history, Gayle’s work allows an intimate view into contemporary Inuit life.
Photo: Alex Archimbaud. Courtesy of Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona.
Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, Feminist Sedna, 2025. Wool duffel, melton wool and embroidery floss, 138 x 138cm. Photo: Tess Girard and Shelby Lisk (cropped). Courtesy of Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona.
“Winning this award is an honour and a meaningful milestone in my career as a visual artist. I love connecting my art with audiences, telling visual stories and spreading Inuit art across new platforms. I’m very grateful to the Hnatyshyn Foundation and the Saunderson family for this recognition. This is a wonderful boost to continue artmaking and an opportunity to invest in my future ideas. What a blessing to continue making the art I love.”
Website: Uyagaqi.ca
Instagram:@uyagaqi
Michaëlle Sergile
Michaëlle Sergile is an artist and independent curator. Born in Chicago, she spent her early childhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before settling in Canada. Using the medium of weaving, and drawing on postcolonial archives spanning from the 1950s to the present day, she seeks to understand and rewrite the histories of Black communities, with a particular focus on women and communities living at various intersections of identity. In her hands, weaving becomes a language through which to question relationships between gender and ethnicity.
Photo: Vladim Vilain. Courtesy of Michaëlle Sergile.
Michaëlle Sergile, And Then, Perhaps, a Memory, 2026. Single weft weavings handwoven with a Jacquard loom and traditional Jack loom, cotton. Installation, 354 x 70”. Photo: Mike Patten. Courtesy of Michaëlle Sergile.
“As artists, we often move through periods of intense activity and visibility, followed by quieter moments of uncertainty, research, and reflection. These shifts are a natural part of artistic practice, but moments of recognition like this become especially meaningful because they remind us that our work is being seen, understood, and valued. Beyond the financial assistance, this award provides encouragement at a moment of growth and reminds me of the importance of continuing to take risks, explore, and imagine new possibilities within my practice.”
Website: michaellesergile.com
Instagram: @michaellesergile
Finalists’ Prizes
This year, we are proud to have increased the value of each Finalists’ Prize from $3,000 to $4,000.
Maria-Margaretta Cabana Boucher
Maria-Margaretta Cabana Boucher is an interdisciplinary Red River Michif Artist/mother from Treaty Six Saskatoon, SK. She is currently making and living on the stolen territories of the xwmƏƟkwƏýƏm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and SƏĺílwƏtaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Cabana Boucher is a citizen of Métis Nation Saskatchewan. She has familial ties to the Métis community of St. Louis, SK through her paternal lineage and is of British descent through her maternal lineage. Her practice explores the Michif self archive, autobiographical beadwork and objects of the everyday. Using Métis identity as a place of transformation, she questions how memory, personal experience, motherhood, and ancestral relations influence her understanding of self.
Photo: Jake Kimble. Courtesy of Maria-Margaretta Cabana Boucher.
Maria-Margaretta Cabana Boucher, Aansaamb, 2025. Site-specific installation on the BC Hydro Dal Grauer Substation building, Vancouver, as part of the Capture Photography Festival. Photo: Dennis Ha. Courtesy of Maria-Margaretta Cabana Boucher.
“What an honour to be selected as a finalist for the Saunderson Prizes. I am especially grateful to the jurors for recognizing my work alongside my fellow nominees and finalists whom I have long admired and respected. This award will assist in building a sustainable artistic practice that continues to allow me to both care for my daughter and nourish my studio practice. To see the love, care, and stories held within my work celebrated encourages me to continue sharing and creating for my family and communities.”
Cabana Boucher is represented by Ceremonial Art.
Instagram: @mariamargaretta
Jake Kimble
Jake Kimble is a multidisciplinary Chipewyan (Dënesųłıné) artist and curator from Treaty 8 territory in the Northwest Territories whose practice revolves around acts of self-care, self-repair, and gender-based ideological refusal. Kimble belongs to the Deninu K’ue First Nation and currently lives, works, and shoots on the stolen territory of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Through a clever subversion of everyday aesthetics, Kimble plays with language and ambiguity – which comes naturally to them as a two-spirited artist. Using a funny bone as a tool, Kimble excavates themes of existentialism, narcissism, and the strange, inviting his audience to examine the absurdities that exist within the everyday so that they too may exhale, unclench, and even chuckle in the spaces where laughter is often lost.
Photo courtesy of Jake Kimble.
Jake Kimble, My Guardian Angel is Tired, 2023. 13’ x 59”. Photo: Dennis Ha. Courtesy of Jake Kimble.
“I have bruises from pinching myself. I know it’s a cliche but it really is just an honour to be nominated. I’m truly grateful to the Hnatyshyn Foundation for this recognition and cash prize! It is a privilege to make work and have that work be seen. I do not take this for granted, even in the slightest. Photography, for me, is a personal form of ceremony – exorcising whatever I am feeling into a photograph allows me to examine, to process, and ultimately to heal. It also allows me to be the author of my own story, and as a two-spirit Chipewyan artist, that’s incredibly important because for so long our stories have not been told by us. The receival of this award bolsters my confidence and lets me know that I’m heading in the right direction. I am one lucky hard-working duck.”
Website: jakekimble.ca
Instagram: @jakekimble
Yen-Chao Lin
Yen-Chao Lin’s artistic practice is grounded in an interest in what cannot be seen but can be felt. Having grown up in a multi-faith family in Taiwan, she was exposed early on to vernacular spiritual practices, belief systems, and related forms of material culture. While as an adult she examines religion and spirituality with a critical eye, these formative experiences continue to shape her work, through which she engages with divination arts, folklore, alchemy, material culture, objecthood, natural history, minerals, and landscape. Lin works across sculpture, installation, and experimental film.
Photo: Ash KG. Courtesy of Yen-Chao Lin.
Yen-Chao Lin, Invisible Landscape 景界 (still), 2026. B/W & Color, sound, Super 8 & 16mm to HD, 12:06. Courtesy of Yen-Chao Lin.
“Each artist’s path is unique and rarely straightforward. I only began making art in my mid-thirties, so being selected as a finalist for the Saunderson Prizes is a meaningful acknowledgement of my journey: the leap of faith, the self-doubts, the struggles, the rejections, the invisible labour, the creative joy, the passion, the lessons on resilience and tenacity, and the roller coaster of human emotions required to sustain an artistic practice. By placing my work on a wider Canadian stage, this award gives me confidence to continue pushing my practice forward.”
Website: yenchaolin.com
Instagram: @yenchao.lynx
Jury
Daina Warren, independent curator and laureate of the 2018 Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence
Katie Lawson, independent curator and laureate of the 2023 Hnatyshyn Foundation - Fogo Island Arts Young Curator Residency
Tak Pham, Curator of the Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta University of the Arts and laureate of the 2023 Hnatyshyn Foundation - Fogo Island Arts Young Curator Residency
Erica Chi, Public Art Officer, City of Ottawa (tiebreaker)
The Hnatyshyn Foundation sincerely thanks the artist-run-centres, galleries, and fine arts professionals who submitted nominations the artists who presented work for consideration, and the jurors who carefully reviewed applications.
Remembering Bill Saunderson (1933-2026)
William and Meredith Saunderson have supported the Saunderson Prizes since 2015. Through their generous contributions, they have championed the practices of 36 Canadian emerging visual artists. This February, we were deeply saddened to learn of Bill’s passing. In addition to his extraordinary generosity, the Hnatyshyn Foundation benefitted from Bill’s financial expertise and wise counsel for over twenty years, since his initial appointment to the Board in 2003. We are honoured to carry forward a piece of Bill’s legacy through the Saunderson Prizes.
Coming soon
In the coming weeks, we look forward to announcing the laureates of this year’s Gerda Hnatyshyn Launch Grants. In case you missed it, we also recently announced the laureates of our study grants, totaling 19 awards for Canadian performing arts students.
We look forward to announcing the 2027 calls for nominations in the new year via our newsletter, website and social media. Stay tuned!
