The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has announced the launch of the Dunya Contemporary Art Prize. Awarded biennially, the new contemporary art prize is given to mid-career artists from the Middle East and its diaspora and is supported by MCA and the Shulamit Nazarian Foundation. The Dunya Contemporary Art Prize is focused on fostering contemporary artists from the region ‘whose work is rigorous, challenging, and unconventional’, with the aim of presenting them as part of the MCA’s Ascendant Artist series.
The inaugural award was presented by an international jury consisting of Dr. Omar Kholeif (MCA Manilow senior curator and director of global initiatives), Hans Ulrich Obrist, (artistic director, Serpentine Galleries), Antonia Carver (director, Art Jameel), Clare Davies (assistant curator of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Michael Darling (chief curator, MCA).
The prize was awarded to Qatari-American artist Sophia Al-Maria, who will receive $100,000 (approx. £71,700) as well as a commission for a new work for the MCA that will be presented in a major exhibition.
24 April 2018
