Live art displays could be enjoyed by visitors to the World Art Dubai event.

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

World Art Dubai 2021, considered the region’s most accessible and affordable art fair, has revealed the winners of its coveted award categories during the four-day event at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC, Apr. 7 – 10).

The show featured more than 2,000 artworks from over 250 artists and galleries from nearly 30 countries, with visitors over the weekend enjoying an array of features including digital, wearable and sustainable art, a collection created by Dubai Police, as well as a series of engaging workshops.

The event championed inclusivity, with prizes awarded to emerging artists, photographers and children.

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World Art Dubai Awards saw four categories of winners take home prizes with the victors unanimously selected by World Art Dubai’s expert curators, Batool Jafri, the ‘Emirates Woman of the Year 2018’; Samar Kamel, Egyptian artist, curator and author and Petra Kaltenbach, artist, videographer and graphic designer.

Magda Malkoun, from Artezaar Online Art Gallery, who won the award for Best Emerging Artist, said: “I’m really honoured to be given the Emerging Artist award; it’s very humbling. World Art Dubai is a great platform for emerging artists — it’s both world and locally renowned with a huge mix of cultures and nationalities.”

Scooping the award for Best Gallery was the Latin American Pavilion. Speaking shortly after the announcement, organiser Alvaro Cirillo said: “This is the first time we are exhibiting in World Art Dubai and we hope to be here again next year and the following years as well. We won the Best Gallery Award for the Latin American gallery exhibition, which is so rewarding as it is a representation of our culture.”

  Urban Art DXB was curated by Vandalist Art owner, Louis Wright.

The Best Artist Award went to Rahul Inamdar, a Mechanical Engineer and Management student who quit his corporate career in 2013 to become full-time artist. “I have been exhibiting at World Art Dubai for the past five years and I was shortlisted back in 2016. Here I am now winning the award!” he said.

Coco Valdez took home the Outstanding Art Award. “I am always looking for ways to progress my art, always looking for the newest trends in art and technology and trying to find a way to combine these two together and this exhibition has given me many ideas and inspirations for the future,” Valdez said. Now in its third year, Rove Hotels crowned Sara Alharbali as winner of the Emerging Artists competition, securing her free exhibition space at World Art Dubai 2022.

Rove’s Public Choice winner this year was Motaz Khalil. “The reason I joined the competition this year was because everyone was telling me World Art Dubai was the right place to be for an emerging artist as a great place to meet people and get the best exposure,” he said.

Five Dubai schools were also encouraged to show their creative flair with group projects submitted from Nord Anglia, Repton Dubai, GEMS New Millennium School, Foremarke School and Jumeirah Baccalaureate School in the form of painted murals, sculptures, installations and mixed media artworks. The schools submitted two pieces, one each from junior and senior school children under the theme “Inspired by Great Artists.”

Repton Dubai won the award for their primary school entry with a prize of Dhs 3,000 for their art department, with Nord Anglia taking the prize for their secondary school entry, also being awarded Dhs 3,000, to be dedicated to the art department. ADNOC made its announcement at World Art Dubai to run a public art competition, where budding artists are invited to submit a proposal for a creative outdoor installation that visualises how the UAE’s community will look in the future, as part of the country’s #Next50 ambitions.

To be in with the chance of winning Dhs 50,000, full funding to create the installation as well as exhibition space in the gardens of ADNOC’s new HQ campus, entrants should check out ADNOC’s social media pages for further details. The competition will be judged by a panel of ten judges, including regional experts, and entrants must be UAE nationals or residents and be over eighteen years old.

Submission deadline for the competition is May 31. Urban Art DXB, an area dedicated to graffiti and street art that is curated by Louis Wright of gallery Vandalist Art, presented eye-popping live graffiti sessions by local and international artists.

Home to twelve UAE-based street artists, all of whom are long-term professional aerosol painters, Urban Art DXB saw both live art creations across a huge canvas, with an exhibition of items for sale, including canvases, prints, drawings and more. Each day at five pm, street art fans enjoyed a live graffiti jam battle with two pairs battling it out to create a mural over ninety minutes. The audience decided the winner via social media — something which proved hugely popular.

Artists exhibiting as part of Urban Art DXB included FINK 22, Dozi Dreams, Rayaan Cassiem, iPOT, Maddy Butcher, Rabab Tantawy, Marvelous Morph, Enforce One, Maajed Ahmed, Culture, Camila Schubert, SATWA 3000, Maseda, Tarsila Schubert and Thais Kelly. “It’s amazing to bring such a diverse range of talent to World Art Dubai this year,” said Wright. “We’ve really upped the mark with new installations, including the Live Artist Battle Wall and Reverse Perspex Painting, both of which are harder than they look! “As a brand, we will continue to grow and push boundaries within every event we curate or play a role in. It’s an exciting time for Street Art, Urban Art and Contemporary Art and it’s a pleasure to be at the middle of all three.”