Seven artists shortlisted for Louvre Abu Dhabi's first Richard Mille Art Prize

The works will be shown at the inaugural Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here exhibition from November

Work by the shortlisted artists will be on display at the inaugural exhibition starting November. Khushnum Bhandari / The National

Seven artists have been shortlisted for the first Richard Mille Art Prize following an open call. Produced in partnership with Swiss watchmaking brand Richard Mille, the prize aims to highlight contemporary art and artists within the region and beyond.

The shortlist includes Emirati artists Latifa Saeed and Mohammed Kazem, Lebanese-Italian artist and writer Cristiana de Marchi, Palestinian artist Mays Albaik, Bahraini artist Nasser Alzayani, Palestinian-Kuwaiti visual artist Tarek Al-Ghoussein and Russian visual artist Taus Makhacheva. The artists' work is varied across mediums from video and photography to performance and installations.

The artists' work will be on show in the inaugural Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 exhibition, which will open in November. A winner will then be selected from the seven to receive a $50,000 (Dh1,83,000) cash prize. The winner will be announced during an award ceremony to be held in the months following the exhibition opening.

The artists have been selected by a four-member jury including Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, chairman of UAE Unlimited and an art collector and patron of the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum and Sharjah Art Foundation; Christine Macel, an art critic and chief curator at the Musee National d’Art Moderne at Centre Pompidou; Hala Warde, founding architect of HW Architecture and long-term partner of Jean Nouvel, who was the lead of the Louvre Abu Dhabi project; and Souraya Noujaim, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s scientific, curatorial and collections management director.

“We were thrilled to have received a large number of proposals from artists across the UAE for this first edition of Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 exhibition and The Richard Mille Art Prize. The calibre and creativity of these submissions are reflective of the UAE’s thriving art scene. We are also excited to be supporting our community of talented artists, who are deeply engaged with the time and place in which they are working,” said Noujaim.

The Richard Mille Art Prize, which was first announced in July, will be held annually.

Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 exhibition will run from Thursday, November 18 to Sunday, March 27, 2022