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Manila Bulletin devider Lifestyle devider Arts and Culture devider Filipina American artist Thea Canlas wins 2026 Sondheim Art Prize

Filipina American artist Thea Canlas wins 2026 Sondheim Art Prize

Her work explores Philippine identity and the diaspora through textiles, sculpture, and installation

Published Aug 29, 2026 09:01 am
(Photo: thecanlas.art)
(Photo: thecanlas.art)
Filipina American artist Thea Canlas has been named the winner of the 2026 Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize, receiving the $30,000 award for her work exploring diasporic Philippine identity.
Thea was announced as the winner Aug. 27 during an awards ceremony at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The honor is presented annually to support the career of a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Greater Baltimore region in USA.
Thea has a conceptual, research-driven practice that examines Philippine identity through craft and material histories, sculptural objects, textiles, installations, and digital media. Her work also considers how Philippine materials and cultural forms are represented and transformed through migration and diaspora.
The artist earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fibers from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2006 and a Master of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver in 2023. She works as a studio artist, freelance designer, and educator.

Thea lives in Baltimore with her husband, David, and their son, Isagani. Her research has taken her to the Philippines and Spain, where, as a Jacques and Natasha Gelman Travel Fellow, she studied Spanish colonial-era archives and textile collections. She also spent a year researching Indigenous textile weaving practices in the Philippines, work that informed her investigations into colonial economies and the country’s history of labor migration.
The recognition comes two years after Thea was selected as a semifinalist for the Sondheim Art Prize in 2024. This year, she was one of five finalists, alongside Leigh Davis, Brandon Donahue-Shipp, Curran Hatleberg, and Danni O’Brien.
Works by the five finalists are currently featured in the Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize Finalists Exhibition at the Walters Art Museum’s Hackerman House. The exhibition, which opened June 25, runs through Sept. 13. 

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