This spring, the spotlight will fall anew on contemporary Arab art as the shortlist for the 7th Ithra Art Prize is revealed — a list that reflects the richness, diversity and critical urgency of artistic practice across the region.
Chosen from over 500 submissions, the five shortlisted artists — Bady Dalloul, Aseel AlYaqoub, Heba Y. Amin, Ala Younis and Jawad Al Malhi — represent a wide range of media, approaches and concerns. Their work engages memory and identity, interrogates colonial histories, and explores the lived dynamics of displacement and belonging.
What sets this edition apart is not only the breadth of artistic voices, but also a renewed commitment to commissioning new work. Each finalist will receive a production grant to develop a new artwork, which will be unveiled later this spring at an exhibition at Ithra in Saudi Arabia. The prize not only includes funding but also acquisition of the work into Ithra’s collection, offering artists a platform that extends beyond the exhibition walls.
An international jury — combining regional insight and global perspective — selected the finalists. Their deliberations reflect an expanding dialogue around contemporary art in the Arab world, one that bridges cultural spheres and generations. The inclusion of voices from different backgrounds — curators, artists, scholars — underscores Ithra’s ambition to nurture the region’s creative ecosystem.
For audiences and practitioners alike, the Ithra Art Prize has become more than an award. It is a cultural barometer — one that charts evolving conversations in Arab art and signals what matters now: experimentation, critical thought, cross-cultural engagement and artistic risk-taking.
In celebrating this year’s shortlist, Ithra is also celebrating a broader movement: a generation of artists who are shaping the visual language of their time and contributing to a more expansive understanding of contemporary practice in the Middle East and beyond.
As anticipation builds toward the spring exhibition, the Ithra Art Prize continues to assert itself not just as a regional milestone, but as an influential platform on the global stage — where Arab art is seen, invested in, and taken seriously.
