Emirati artist Farah Al Qasimi has been named among the 33 medallists in the Emerging Artist category of the 2026 Art Basel Awards.
The awards span nine categories and seek to recognise figures across the wider contemporary art world, including artists, curators, institutions, patrons and cultural platforms. This year’s medallists were selected by a nine-member international jury.
Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of Sharjah Art Foundation, served as a juror for the second cycle of the awards. Born in Abu Dhabi, Al Qasimi is one of the UAE’s most internationally visible contemporary artists.
Her work has often focused on everyday life, domestic spaces and consumer culture in the Gulf, using vivid, carefully composed images that move between documentary observation and surreal detail across photography and film, with projects shown internationally from New York to London.
Last year, a selection of Al Qasimi’s photographs went on free public display at the Tate Modern in London. In 2021, she contributed to the UAE National Pavilion’s Venice Architecture Biennale presentation, for which she created large-scale photographs of the sabkha landscape.
Al Qasimi is also among the six artists selected for the National Pavilion UAE’s 2026 Venice Biennale exhibition, Washwasha.
The full list of artist medallists includes Barbara Kruger, Howardena Pindell and Jenny Holzer in the Icon Artist category; Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Arthur Jafa, Julie Mehretu, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Theaster Gates in Established Artist; and Al Qasimi alongside Aziza Kadyri, Carla Gueye, Diego Marcon, Precious Okoyomon and Tiffany Sia in Emerging Artist.
Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah Biennale Foundation is honoured in the Museum and Institution category.
The medallists will be honoured during the flagship fair in Basel in June, before Gold Awardees are selected later in the year and announced during Art Basel Miami Beach in December.
The Gold Awards in the artist categories will provide more than $250,000 annually in flexible support through honorariums, philanthropic contributions and public commissions.
