Lawrie Shabibi is proud to announce that gallery artist Shahpour Pouyan has been shortlisted for the 4th edition of the Jameel Prize. The prize is the Victoria & Albert Museum international art prize for contemporary artists and designers inspired by Islamic traditions of craft and design. Pouyan's nominated work is his series of domes entitled Unthinkable Thought, 2014 currently on display at Grey Art Gallery, NYU as part of Globa/Local 1960 -2015 Six Artists From Iran.
The Jameel Prize 4 exhibition will open on 8 June 2016 until 14 August 2016 at the Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. This is the first time that the Jameel Prize will be launched at an external venue and the exhibition will in future rotate between the V&A and guest venues around the world. The winner will be announced on 7 June 2016.
Over 280 nominations for the Jameel Prize 4 were received from countries as far ranging as Afghanistan, Mali, Puerto Rico and Thailand. The V&A shortlist of 11 artists and designers includes David Chalmers Alesworth, Rasheed Araeen, Lara Assouad, Canan, Cevdet Erek, Sahand Hesamiyan, Lucia Koch, Ghulam Mohammad Wael Shawky and Bahia Shehab.
The Jameel Prize is supported by Art Jameel and aims to raise awareness of the thriving interaction between contemporary practice and this great historical heritage. It has also contributed to a broader understanding of Islamic culture and its place in the world.
Shahpour Pouyan works with different media including ceramics and metalwork. The decorative nature of his work is inspired by traditional Islamic art but the unclear function of the object allows interpretation of the object from different perspectives. His series of ceramics Unthinkable Thought',(2014) shows different forms of domes - architectural structures long used as expressions of power. Pouyan uses traditional Islamic pottery techniques to make his models of a variety of domes from Europe and the Middle East. Some are detailed scaled-down reproductions of specific buildings such as the Pantheon in Rome; others are simpler almost typological and draw on Iran's rich architectural history, for example the turquoise dome of Isfahan's famous Shah Mosque.
Award-winning architect Dame Zaha Hadid is Patron of the Jameel Prize. The judges are Alan Caiger-Smith (potter), Ece and Ayşe Ege (founders of the fashion label Dice Kayek and winners of Jameel Prize 3), Rose Issa (curator, writer, publisher and producer), Hammad Nasar (curator, writer and Head of Research and Programmes at Asia Art Archive (AAA)) and Martin Roth (Director of the V&A).
For information on the Jameel Prize click.
