Winners of Saudi Arabia's Misk Art Grant announced

The UAE is well represented in this year's grant cycle

Afra Al Dhaheri working on her installation 'Tasreeha, 2020', from Abu Dhabi Art's Beyond: Emerging Artists show at Manarat Al Saadiyat

Saudi Arabia's Misk Art Institute has announced the winners of the 2021 Misk Art Grant, the first grant cycle open to non-Saudi nationals as well as Saudi artists.

The award is in its second year and carries a grant of 1,000,000 Saudi riyals ($267,000). The money helps to fund projects pitched to the institute by hopeful artists, with the recipients also receiving mentorship from a committee of artists and art professionals.

The grantees this year are Saudi artists Rashed Alshashai, Basma Felemban, and Obaid Alsafi; Kuwaiti artist Mishari AlNajjar; Nour Alwan from Bahrain; Latifa Saeed, Afra Al Dhaheri, and architects Jawaher Almutairi and Mira Almazrooei from the UAE; and French-Algerian artist Zoulikha Bouabdellah.

The theme this year is “Under Construction”, which Misk relates to the emerging cultural scenes within the Arab region. Particular focus is given to questions of identity, community and cultural representation – all key themes in contemporary Arab work, especially in the Gulf.

The award is in its second year, and this year's jury is made up of artists was Reem Fadda, director of Abu Dhabi's Cultural Foundation; Laila Alfaddagh, director general of Saudi Arabia's National Museum; Myrna Ayad, a cultural strategist and former Art Dubai director; and Konstantinos Chatziantoniou, head of collections and conservation at the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, also known as Ithra, in Dhahran.