The Abraaj Group Art Prize has announced its five winners for 2014. The awardees each receive $100,000 and create an artwork that will debut at the Art Dubai fair in March 2014.
Recipients are Tehran-born, Toronto-based multimedium artist Abbas Akhavan; Kochi-born, Bangalore-based photographer Anup Mathew Thomas; Cairo-born, Cairo- and Basel-based multimedium artist Basim Magdy; Casablanca-born, Berlin-based multimedium artist Bouchra Khalili; and Shiraz-born, New York-based multimedium artist Kamrooz Aram. Established in 2008, the prize is organized by The Abraaj Group, a Dubai-based private equities manager, to encourage artistic development in the MENASA region, which comprises the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
The winners are selected from applications, which take the form of proposals for artworks, by a panel of six experts: Antonia Carver, director, Art Dubai; Diana Farouki, art patron; Salwa Mikdadi, art historian and curator; Jessica Morgan, curator, Tate London; Glenn Lowry, director, Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Murtaza Vali, the guest curator for last year’s prize. Nada Raza, a London-based Pakistani curator, is guest curator for 2014. She will now begin working with the recipients to realize their proposed artworks. She will also edit a catalogue.
This is the prize’s sixth edition. Previous winners include Rayyane Tabet (Lebanon, 2013), Wael Shawky (Egypt, 2012) and Kader Attia (Algeria, 2010).
PHOTO: Bouchra Khalili. Courtesy the artist.
