The 2016 Sobey Art Award has been handed to Jeremy Shaw, it was revealed last night. The announcement was made during a gala event at the National Gallery of Canada, in Ontario, and the award was presented to Shaw by last year’s winner, Abbas Akhavan.

Related: Shortlist Announced for the Prestigious  2016 Sobey Art Award

In winning the CA$50,000 ($37,384) prize, Shaw becomes the thirteenth Canadian contemporary artist under the age of 40 to receive the prestigious award. Representing the West Coast and Yukon region, Shaw responded to the news of his achievement, saying: “it is a wonderful recognition and affirmation that people are seeing, and being moved, by what you are doing.”

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Comprised of senior curators and directors from galleries around Canada, the 2016 panel who decided upon the winner issued the following statement: “Jeremy Shaw’s work speaks to a fundamental longing for transcendence. He creates and reflects extraordinary experiences and shows us how art can translate what is challenging to articulate.”

Jeremy Shaw, Variation FQ, (2013). Photo courtesy the artist.

Working in a variety of media, Shaw explores altered states and the cultural and scientific practices that aspire to map transcendental experience by creating a post-documentary space in which contrasting ideals and belief systems are put into crisis. He uses conceptual art, ethnographic film, music video, and mystical and scientific research to explore this concept.

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Shaw’s work is now on display in the 2016 Sobey Art Award exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada. Alongside Shaw’s will be the work from the four other finalists from this year’s competition, Brenda Draney (Prairies and Northern Canada); Charles Stankievech (Ontario);  Hajra Waheed (Québec); and William Robinson (Atlantic) who each received a CA$10, 000 prize.

The Sobey Art Award Exhibition will be on view at the National Museum of Canada until February 5, 2017.