UBC Okanagan professor Samuel Roy-Bois is on the 2025/26 Sobey Award shortlist. A winner is to be announced this fall.
UBC Okanagan visual arts professor Samuel Roy-Bois has been shortlisted for the 2025/26 Sobey Art Award, one of the most prestigious honours in Canadian contemporary art.
The Lake Country-based sculptor-whose practice spans installation, photography and architectural thinking-is among six artists vying for the award, which celebrates contemporary practice across the country.
"I've always had a busy and active art career," Roy-Bois says. "But the past year and a half has been particularly intense. I've been working almost nonstop."
Presented annually by the Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada, the Sobey Art Award recognizes contemporary Canadian artists with a $100,000 prize for the winner and $25,000 for each of the other shortlisted artists.
Roy-Bois is the second UBCO artist from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies in the past two years to be shortlisted for the prize, following Tania Willard , who won the award last year. A winner is to be announced this fall.
Roy-Bois' practice is grounded in sculpture and installation, with photography playing a supporting role. Wood is the material that anchors much of his work, chosen not only for its accessibility but for its cultural and architectural associations.
"I've been working with wood since I was a kid," he says. "It's part of everyday life. Our homes are made of it; our furniture is made of it. It's a material that can be transformed with very simple tools, and that allows me to speak about architecture and the built environment."
Architecture, space and the ways our built environments shape human relationships have been consistent concerns throughout his career.
"I think about architecture as a type of object," he explains. "It's something that contains us most of the time, but it's still an object. It defines how we relate to each other and how we relate to the broader universe."
Roy-Bois found himself immersed in the arts from an early age. He started taking painting classes when he was 12. That led to art school at Université Laval in Quebec City, followed by a Master of Fine Arts at Concordia in Montreal.
"My parents were really into the arts," he says. "My dad, for a while, had a gallery in Quebec City, and I had my first solo show there."
After completing his master's degree and living in New York with his wife, Roy-Bois moved to Vancouver. He began teaching at Emily Carr University of Art + Design as a sessional instructor in 2008 and joined UBC Okanagan in 2013.
"I was really ready for a new adventure," he says. "Before teaching, I spent a few years working in construction and doing odd jobs here and there. But I was always making art, always having exhibitions across the country."
Teaching, he says, has become central to his practice.
"When I started teaching, I realized how exciting it was. Working with young people who want to learn about art and make art is stimulating," he says. "Having a role where you teach, do research and take part in faculty life is amazing."
Each year, the Sobey Art Award draws on curators from across the country, who assemble regional long lists of artists whose work reflects the urgency and diversity of visual art in Canada. This year's West Coast nominations were selected by Kimberly Phillips, curator of the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum at Simon Fraser University.
"I try to be as detached as possible when I'm making my work," he says. "I'm not looking for accolades. So, when something like this happens, it feels like I'm doing something right.
"It brings attention to what artists are doing right now. These are people working hard who are dedicated and passionate. To be among them is an honour."
