Islamic tradition-inspired Jameel Prize art exhibition to tour Dubai for first time in 2019

DUBAI - The Jameel Prize exhibition will visit Dubai for the first time in April 2019, Antonia Carver, director of Art Jameel told Salaam Gateway.

The exhibition will take place at the new Jameel Arts Centre, which opened its doors on November 11.

Jameel Prize is an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. First awarded in 2009, it is held every two years and is worth 25,000 British pounds.

“Jameel Prize is a celebration of today’s artists and how they are still incredibly inspired by Islamic art and design and its principles, regardless of whether they work in paintings, sculpture, drawings, film, or video, and regardless of where they live,” said Carver.

The award is organized by Art Jameel, the cultural philanthropic arm of the Saudi business conglomerate Abdul Latif Jameel, in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London.

“Jameel Prize has really shown that artists can be from anywhere in the world, any background, any nationality and still find Islamic art to be crucially relevant to their ideas,” said Carver.

The award is open to contemporary artists and designers from around the world, but their work has to show inspiration from Islamic art and design.

Two joint winners were announced in the fifth edition of the prize in June this year.

Iraq-born artist Medhi Moutashar and Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum showed their artwork along with eight finalists in a special exhibition at the V&A from June 28 to November 25.

The exhibition will then tour other venues that are yet to be announced, before visiting Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai next spring.

While this will be Jameel Prize’s first visit to Dubai, it won’t be its first in the UAE. The exhibition was hosted twice in the past by the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization – in 2010 and 2014.

“The Jameel Prize has been going on for 10 years, through five editions. After every edition, we sit down with the V&A to discuss ideas going forward and check that the prize is as radical and exciting in today’s world as it is when it began,” said Carver.

“We look at how we can develop the prize further and create even more international awareness of the ways in which Islamic art and design is inspiring artists today.”

(Reporting by Heba Hashem; Editing by Emmy Abdul Alim [email protected])

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