Sharjah Art Foundation announces Aziz Hazara, Pallavi Paul and Pratchaya Phinthong as winners of Sharjah Biennial Prize
HH Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, Sheikha Nawar Al Qassimi, Vice President of Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah Biennial Prize winning artists and jury members with Sharjah Biennial 16 co-curators at Sharjah Biennial 16 Award Ceremony. Image courtesy of Sharjah Government Media Bureau
During the opening gala dinner of the 16th edition of the Sharjah Biennial on Thursday, 7 February 2025, Sharjah Art Foundation announced Aziz Hazara, Pallavi Paul, and Pratchaya Phinthong as the recipients of the prestigious Sharjah Biennial Prize.
The winners were selected by a distinguished jury comprising architect and curator Paula Nascimento, co-founder of Beyond Entropy Africa and co-curator of the award-winning Angola Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2013); curator Eungie Joo, former Curator and Head of Contemporary Art at SFMOMA, Artistic Director at Instituto Inhotim in Brazil, and curator of Sharjah Biennial 12 (2015); and curator Gerardo Mosquera, co-founder of the Havana Biennial and co-curator of the San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial (2015–2016) and Guangzhou Image Triennial (2021).
Curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz, the 16th edition of the Sharjah Biennial is titled to carry, an open-ended and multivocal proposition. The Biennial explores the evolving questions of what to carry and how to carry it, inviting audiences to engage with the unique perspectives of its five curators and the constellation of ideas they have assembled.
Sharjah Biennial Prize Winners
In the Old Al Jubail Vegetable Market, Aziz Hazara (b. 1992, Wardak, Afghanistan) presents a poignant installation chronicling the afterlife of Bagram. His works, including I Love Bagram (ILB) (2025) and Bagram Field Notes (2021–ongoing), examine the impact of military intervention through the remnants left behind—common grooming products, clothing, tools, and everyday objects—forming a radical archive of knowledge and resistance.
Pallavi Paul (b. 1987, New Delhi, India) presents a contemplative installation featuring Reckoning (2024), Afterglow (2024), and the film How Love Moves (2023). Her moving work tells the story of gravedigger Shamim Khan, who, alongside his colleagues, buried over 4,000 people who lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ethno-nationalist violence that followed the Delhi riots in 2020. Through her art, Paul reflects on the inextricable ties between life and death.
Pratchaya Phinthong (b. 1974, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand) collaborates with divers off the east coast of the UAE to install an underwater steel structure connected to a solar panel. Using slabs of coral brick ‘harvested’ from heritage site walls, the work creates a foundation for repopulating coral in the Gulf. Alongside ten granite solar panel sculptures placed throughout Sharjah, his project, We are lived by powers we pretend to understand (2024), examines the intersections of art, science, and heritage.
The Biennial features an extensive program of activations, performances, music, and film across more than 17 venues throughout the Emirate of Sharjah, including locations in Sharjah City, Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid, and Kalba. Free and open to the public, Sharjah Biennial 16 runs from 6 February to 15 June 2025.
For more information, please visit sharjahart.org.
