The Audain Prize for the Visual Arts
The Audain Prize for the Visual Arts is one of Canada's most prestigious honours. Awarded annually, the $100,000 Audain Prize serves as a powerful testament to the global accomplishments of British Columbia's artists.
Throughout its history, the Audain Prize has honoured some of the province's most influential artists including Rebecca Belmore, Dana Claxton, Ian Wallace, James Hart, Stan Douglas, Susan Point, Carole Itter, Paul Wong, Michael Morris, Fred Herzog, Takao Tanabe, Gathie Falk, Marian Penner Bancroft, Rodney Graham, Robert Davidson, Liz Magor, Jeff Wall, Gordon Smith, Eric Metcalfe, E.J. Hughes, and Ann Kipling. Selected by an independent committee, the annual Audain Prize is presented by the Audain Art Museum. The Prize also serves as an important source of inspiration for emerging and mid-career artists, directly impacting and empowering future generations of Canadian artists.
2026 Recipient:
Steven Shearer
Born in New Westminster, British Columbia, in 1968, Steven Shearer is a Vancouver-based contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice has evolved over more than three decades. A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1992, Shearer works across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, printmaking and collage. His work is distinguished by an expansive engagement with images and objects drawn from both art history and everyday visual culture, bringing together seemingly disparate references including heavy metal, popular culture, youth subcultures, vernacular imagery…
Steven Shearer, Night Train, 2009-2010.
Oil on linen.
© Steven Shearer. Courtesy of David Zwirner and
Galerie Eva Presenhuber. Photo © Chris Gergley