REGINA, Sask. — The MacKenzie Art Gallery has announced Caroline Monnet as the inaugural recipient of The Thorn Prize, a new biennial $50,000 award created in memory of Saskatchewan artist Anthony Thorn (1927–2014).
The award was established by Thorn’s sister, Lyn Goldman, as a lasting tribute to her brother’s artistic practice and her belief in the power of art to inspire, challenge, and connect communities.
Created shortly before her passing, Lyn Goldman’s gift ensures that Anthony Thorn’s legacy will continue beyond his own body of work, supporting artists who, like Thorn, seek to express something meaningful and transcendent through their practice. Over the next decade, The Thorn Prize will invest in the practices of five mid-career Canadian artists, providing them with time, resources, professional support and the opportunity to present a solo exhibition at the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Inaugural winner, Caroline Monnet, is a multidisciplinary artist of Anishinaabe Algonquin and French heritage, originally from the Outaouais region of Quebec and based in Mooniyang/Montreal. Working across film, video, photography, sculpture, installation and mixed media, she draws on Anishinaabeg methodologies to explore relationships between land, identity, memory and material culture. Her practice brings cinematic, sculptural, and architectural forms into dialogue, often transforming industrial and construction materials through processes of weaving, embroidery, laser cutting and other textile-based techniques.
“I feel deeply honoured to receive the inaugural Thorn Prize from the MacKenzie Art Gallery”, says Monnet.
“It is an extraordinary privilege, and I am profoundly grateful to the jury and the Gallery for this recognition and support. This award comes at a particularly meaningful moment in my practice, as I look toward expanding its scope and possibilities. It will give me the resources and freedom to pursue ambitious new projects, take greater risks, and allow the work to evolve in unexpected directions. I see this prize not only as an affirmation of what I have accomplished, but as an investment in what is still to come.”
Monnet’s work has been exhibited extensively across Canada, the United States and Europe, including at the Whitney Biennial in New York, the Toronto Biennial of Art, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, among numerous other institutions. Her work is held in major public and private collections across North America, as well as in the UNESCO collection in Paris. Monnet is represented by Blouin Division in Montreal and Toronto.
“Honouring her Anishinaabe heritage and her bi-cultural experience, Caroline Monnet’s vital artistic practice positions her as one of Canada’s most significant mid-career artists,” states inaugural jurors Haema Sivanesan (director, Visual Arts, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity), Mona Filip (chief curator, Contemporary Calgary), and Wayne Baerwaldt (independent curator).
“The jury recognizes the originality, prolific vision, and poetic beauty of Monnet’s work, as well as her deep commitment to advocacy centering Indigenous cultural reclamation.
Monnet’s education in sociology and communications informs a unique approach to working across a wide range of media including sculpture, installation, film and fashion. She demonstrates artistic confidence and resourcefulness while being resolute to Anishinaabe values. Her powerful aesthetic combines elements of popular and traditional culture, resulting in a potent new visual vocabulary. She connects themes and materials throughout her practice, shaping meaningful considerations on cultural identity and its relationship to the land. Transforming ordinary construction supplies, Monnet reinterprets ancestral motifs to reflect on the centrality of the land and its gifts in Anishinaabe spirituality and history. Her techniques of weaving, embroidering and imprinting assert connection and transmission, using new technologies to nurture the continuum of cultural expression."
This award recognizes Monnet’s remarkable achievements and the impact of her expansive vision that cultivates deep connections with both ancestral and contemporary cultures.”
Caroline Monnet’s inaugural Thorn Prize exhibition will open at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in February 2027, marking the beginning of a new chapter in Anthony Thorn and Lyn Goldman’s shared legacy: one that celebrates the enduring power of art and supports the artists who will shape its future.
