Dubai: Young ambitious artists in the UAE were awarded in a gala awarding ceremony on Monday for their creative talents and artistic achievements in the ninth edition of the Shaikha Manal Young Artist Award.
Out of 50 shortlisted artworks, 16 artworks of mainly university students and graduates who majored or are still majoring in art, design, or multimedia, were selected and awarded on Monday with big cash prizes based on the judgement of a panel of judges who comprised industry professionals and practising artists from the local and international art community.
Held under the patronage of Shaikha Manal Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Women Establishment, the Award, which was first launched in 2006, is an annual visual art competition that aims to encourage, recognise and promote emerging artists from the UAE.
The 16 awards, including the people’s choice award, which relies on public voting, and the winners of the #ClickYAA social media competition, a new addition to this year’s competition, were presented by Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai International Marine Club.
In the opening speech, Mona Bin Kalli, Director of the Cultural Office, spoke about the importance of having the Shaikha Manal Young Artist Award and praised the role the UAE has played in fostering the arts and the cultural scene and recognising it as not less important its economy.
She also said: “Although 16 artists are being awarded today, all of you are still winners and we believe that you will be able to leave a mark in the artistic and cultural field. We will continue to support all emerging artists.”
Shaikh Mansour also congratulated all the winners and encouraged those who did not win to continue striving and to never look at the negative side.
This year the value of the award prize money was Dh430,000, with Dh50,000, Dh30,000 and Dh20,000 for the first place winner, runner-up, and second runner up of the four competition categories of fine arts, photography, multimedia and design.
There was also a cash prize of Dh12,000 for the people’s choice award and cash prizes for three winners of the social media competition.
First place winner of the digital photography category, Sadaf Rezai, an American University student from Iran, won for a picture she captured of her grandmother, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and has been going through a lot of pain.
The picture shows her grandmother lying on a coach, her eyes closed, her mouth open and her hands held together right under her chin. She called it A Day in My Grandma’s Life.
“My grandmother was diagnosed with these painful diseases nine years ago, and her body has been going through different phases and changes, so I wanted to document all of this and was trying to show the pain she was going through. It was really difficult to see her like this every day,” said Sadaf, as she tears up.
Sadaf said she had always wanted to write a book about her grandmother, but she finally decided to do it through her camera’s lens for a photography project.
“The award is such a great opportunity and I’m glad I joined the competition. Everyone with an artistic talent should try submitting their work because it allows others to see the artistic side of you that they may have not seen before,” she said.
Salma Al Serafi, 17, from Egypt, creatively captured a picture of one of the works from the exhibition at City Walk and was able to win in the social media competition.
“I took a picture of a glass case of another shortlisted piece at City Walk and it reflected the top half of the exhibition, so it looked mirrored. I actually did not expect to win and did not think about participating in this category because I already had one of my works shortlisted,” said Salma.
She also said that the social media competition was an interesting addition to the whole competition because it allows people to play around with the concept of art and interact with the pieces.
