Nine receive Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award

The Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award (YAA) has been awarded to nine emerging artists in a nod of acknowledgement for their achievements from the arts community.

A gala award ceremony was held at The Address, Downtown Dubai where the winners were awarded a total of Dh180,000 in prize money.

The awards operate under the patronage of president of Dubai Women Establishment, HH Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and are now in their sixth edition.

“We believe that such art initiatives are essential for building innovative thinkers who will be the world leaders of tomorrow,” said the executive director of Dubai Ladies Club, Muna Bin Kalli.

Kalli also said that the vision of the award lies with its founder and patron.

The awards were grouped into three categories: fine art, photography and multimedia.

First place in the fine art category was awarded to Walid Al Wawi, whose painting Place The Dots displayed a series of Arabic words with their punctuating diacritic dots removed.

Omar Aly Mohammed took home the top gong in the photography category and the multimedia category was awarded to Chinese-born, Dubai-based artist Lantian Xie for his animation depicting fast food items.

First, second and third place in each category was awarded with Dh30,000, Dh20,000 and Dh10,000 respectively.

The People’s Choice Award, voted for by the public online, was awarded to Arwa Al Absi Al Jundi for her oil on canvas work.

The top three winners in each category were selected by key industry figures in the art sector and were chosen from over 200 submissions from 11 different nationalities.