Celebration of Alia Farid, the 2023 recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award

"We are delighted to celebrate The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award recipient here in London," says Caroline Ugelstad, Jury Leader for the Award, and Director of Exhibition and Collection at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Norway. 

Alia Farid (b. 1985) is a visual artist who lives and works in Kuwait and Puerto Rico. Upon receiving the news about the Award earlier this year, she said:

"Art is an important part of thinking and understanding things. Without it, life would be one-dimensional. I live in a society that is ambivalent about supporting art and culture, so having the endorsement of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme really means a lot to me."

The work of Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid brings together a variety of media, including writing, drawing, film and sculpture, giving visibility to narratives obscured by hegemony. The celebration in London took place November 30 at the Chisenhale Gallery, on the occasion of the opening of Elsewhere, Farid’s first UK solo exhibition. During the private pre-opening reception, co-hosted by the Norwegian Embassy and Ambassador Tore Hattrem, Ugelstad and Paulina Rider Wilhelmsen, Founder of the Award, handed the Diploma to Farid. 

“The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award is looking for visual artists who already have a developed visual aesthetics and who can benefit from the award at a well-timed point in their artistic vocation. In addition, we are looking for artists with a social engagement. Through our long jury discussions, it became clearer and clearer to us that Alia Farid fulfilled all these criteria,” says Ugelstad. 

Solo exhibition at Henie Onstad next year
September 12, 2024, Alia Farid's first solo exhibition in the Nordic countries will open at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, Norway. The exhibition at Henie Onstad and an acquisition budget to include the artist’s works in the Henie Onstad Collection form part of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme, together with an artistic honorarium of 100,000 USD. This makes the Award one of the most significant art awards in the world. 

The Award is presented biannually to recognise the contribution of an outstanding international artist whose work is important and relevant to our time. Guadalupe Maravilla was the second artist to receive The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, which was inaugurated in 2019 with Otobong Nkanga as its first recipient.

Alia Farid was selected as the recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award (LWAAP) by an international jury comprising: María Inés Rodríguez, editor of Tropical Papers and Director Walter Leblanc Foundation; Michelle Kuo, The Marlene Hess Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, New York; Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of MACBA, Barcelona; Paulina Rider Wilhelmsen, Founder of LWAAP and Wilstar Social Impact, Oslo; Tone Hansen, Director of MUNCH, Founder of LWAAP and former Director of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; Caroline Ugelstad, Jury Leader of the Award and Director of Collection and Exhibition and Chief Curator at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo.

Regarding the selection, the jury stated: 
"We are incredibly proud to announce Alia Farid as the recipient of the Award. Her extraordinary practice across multiple media raises awareness of highly important topics in our time whilst carrying a powerful aesthetic and an embedded materiality and sociality that often results in large-scale works. Alia Farid's complex work mediates between the past and the present and, in a poetic processing, draws out omitted histories that push against standard narratives. She explores questions of conflict and control and how power and violence are inflicted on nature and people. We have high expectations for Alia Farid's further activities and believe LWAAP can contribute to her production and strong social commitment at a timely point in her artistic vocation."

About The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme
The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme is a partnership between the Lise and Arne Wilhelmsen family and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, Norway. It was established to continue and honour Lise Wilhelmsen's (1936–2019) commitment to the visual arts. The family's commitment to the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is confirmed for eight editions, spanning 16 years, with the intention of an extension of further 16 years.  

About the artist
Alia Farid (b.1985) lives and works in Kuwait and Puerto Rico. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from la Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico (San Juan), a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Visual Arts Program in MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Critical Theory from the Programa d’Estudis Independents MACBA (Barcelona). Farid is a 2023-24 Radcliffe Institute Fellow.  

She has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam), Portikus (Frankfurt am Main) and now Chisenhale Gallery (London). She has forthcoming solo exhibitions at CAC Passerelle (Brest) and Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Oslo), and she is amongst the shortlisted artists for the Artes Mundi 10 Prize.