Announcing the Five Recipients of the 2024 Emerging Digital Artist Award

Announcing the five recipients of the 2024 Emerging Digital Artists Award

EQ Bank is pleased to announce the five recipients of the 2024 Emerging Digital Artists Award. The EDAA is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an expanded award program that recognizes the achievements of digital artists, supports their continued development, and showcases digital art to a range of audiences more than ever before.

The 2024 EDAA recipients are:

Still Image: Moni Omubor
Moni is a Lagos-born visual artist and designer based in Lethbridge, Alberta, whose new media practices uses speculative fiction to explore the interconnectedness of Black diasporic realities and postcolonial Nigerian identity.

Moving Image: Carmilla Sumantry
Carmilla is an interdisciplinary creative based in so-called Vancouver. Her practice explores the relationship between emerging technology and art and is informed by her second-generation Indonesian-Canadian heritage and queer identity.

2D Interactive: Studio Ekosi
Studio Ekosi is Caeleigh and Keara Lightning, mixed Irish and Nehiyaw sisters based in Edmonton, Alberta, who create narrative games about Indigenous futures.

Extended Reality: Quinn Hopkins
Quinn is a Toronto-based artist working at the intersection of Urban Indigenous culture and new media. His practice is rooted in Anishinaable-Métis traditions, reimagining Indigenous iconography for the modern era.

3D Installation: Francisco Gonzalez-Rosas
Francisco is a Chilean performance and new media artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Their practice explores existing and speculative crossovers between body and technology, emphasizing the politics of these encounters.

The five recipients’ works were selected from over 200 submissions by emerging artists across the country, in recognition of their critical and creative approach to digital media. The shortlist was determined by a jury panel of invited artists, curators, and practitioners from the digital arts community—Crystal Mowry, Kara Stone, Skawennati, and Zach Blas—and chaired by Shannon Linde from EQ Bank.

Learn more about the artists and their award-winning works here.

Each artist receives a $5,000 grand prize, in addition to a one-year subscription to Pilot Art List. The five award-winning works will be featured in a touring group exhibition starting at Gallery TPW, Toronto, December 11, 2024 – January 11, 2025, and travelling to EMMEDIA Gallery & Production Society, Calgary, and Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax, later in 2025. The five works will also be included in an expanded virtual exhibition produced in partnership with the MacKenzie Art Gallery in 2025. Lastly, one of the five recipients will participate in an international residency with CYENS Centre of Excellence in Nicosia, Cyprus, in November 2025.

Questions about the EDAA can be sent to edaa@eqbank.ca.
For the latest information about the 2024 prize, follow us on Instagram: @edaa_eqb

About the Emerging Digital Artists Award
The Emerging Digital Artists Award is Canada’s major award for critical experimentation in digital media, proudly presented by EQ Bank. Established in 2015, the EDAA has awarded over $150,000 to 55 artists and celebrated a range of screen-based practices including video, animation, virtual reality, game art, and web art.

About EQ Bank
EQ Bank is the digital banking platform launched in 2016 by Equitable Bank, Canada’s Challenger Bank™. As a future-ready financial institution, fostering innovation is at the heart of everything we do. We firmly believe in the benefits of open banking and continue to invest in technology to serve the changing financial needs of Canadians.

Images (clockwise from top left): Studio Ekosi; Carmilla Sumantry (Maryn Devine); Francisco Gonzalez-Rosas (Cuto Reed); Moni Omubor (Oseremen Irete); and Quinn Hopkins (Nadya Kwandibens/Red Works Photography)