The Jameel Prize shortlist has been revealed by the V&A and Art Jameel. The Jameel Prize is the world's most prestigious award for Islamic-inspired modern art and design.

Golnar Adili (Iran), Hadeyeh Badri (UAE), Kallol Datta (India), Farah Fayyad (Lebanon), Ajlan Gharem (Saudi Arabia), Sofia Karim (UK), Jana Traboulsi (Lebanon), and Bushra Waqas Khan were the eight finalists chosen from over 400 applicants for the £25,000 draw (Pakistan).

The V&A and Art Jameel partnered on the Jameel Prize, began in 2009, and is now in its 6th season. This version ushers in a new age by focusing on architectural design as a theme.

Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics, which features creations by the eight shortlisted designers and opens on September 18 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London before touring globally, would be the first international exhibition to focus on a groundbreaking contemporary design influenced by Islamic culture.

The finalists deal with both the personal and the political, analyzing the past in innovative and essential ways with varied practices spanning graphic design and fashion, typography and textiles, installation, and activism. Current events and living experiences, the legacies of language, architecture, and craft, are discussed in the works. The winner will be declared at the exhibition's opening in September.

The international jury, shortlisted and will pick the winner, includes V&A Director Tristram Hunt, joint winners of the Jameel Prize 5, Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar and Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum, and the joint winners of the Jameel Prize 5, Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar and Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum. The list also includes British author and design critic Alice Rawsthorn, as well as Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, an Emirati artist, scholar, and founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation.

“Those with extraordinary, diverse creative and inventive projects, with clear ties between Islamic practices and contemporary design, have been shortlisted,” Hunt said.

‘Poetry to Politics' is the most urgent and timely of Jameel Prize exhibits, presenting projects that are steeped in architecture and craft, and resonate sharply with current political debates and day to day realities,” said Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel.

The Jameel Prize has received submissions from over 1,000 artists from over 40 countries in the past five editions, displayed the work of 48 artists and designers, and toured to 16 venues around the world.

The first five editions shaped a general perception of how Islamic practice can be used as a source of inspiration for both art and architecture. This version accepted open call submissions and the standard nomination scheme.

Art Jameel and the Jameel family are commemorating three-quarters of a century of philanthropy with the 75 Years/75 Voices/75 Stories project, which includes endorsements from Hunt and other influential people from the worlds of business, arts, academia, and philanthropy, including HRH The Prince of Wales; Noura Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of Culture and Youth; and Max Ho, founder of the Max Ho Foundation.

Adili is a New York-based multi-media artist and designer. Her work delves into aspects of her identity, through Persian poetry and language.

Badri is a fiber artist and Emirati designer who lives and works in Dubai. Textiles have a rich artistic language that combines gesture, touch, memory, and ritual.

Datta is an Indian textile designer from Kolkata who developed an interest in clothing from North Africa and West Asia while growing up in the UAE and Bahrain. He takes inspiration from the abaya, manteau, hanbok, hijab, and caftan's forms and silhouettes, incorporating enveloping, swaddling, covering, and layering movements in modern combinations.

Based on two projects, Fayyad has been shortlisted. The first is typographic: she was so mesmerized with Arabic calligraphy and lettering that she developed Kufur, a modern Arabic typeface based on the historic Kufic script. Her digital adaptation of the original Kufic script preserves the visual character of the original though adapting certain features for use on computers. The second project arose from the current political climate. She and her colleagues set up a screen-printing activity at the core of the Beirut protests when popular revolts started across Lebanon in 2019.

They set up a manual press with slogans and artwork created by local artists and printed them on protestors' garments for free and the spot.

Gharem is a Saudi Arabian multidisciplinary artist and mathematics instructor based in Riyadh. In the face of globalization and shifting political institutions, his work examines how Saudi societies perceive and convey their history.

Karim is a London-based British architect, poet, and activist. Her advocacy in India and Bangladesh is based on human rights, artists' freedom of speech, and movements for political prisoners.

Traboulsi discusses elements of manuscript activities that are often considered secondary to the core text, such as diacritics, Sura markers, the index, and catchwords, citing research into Middle Eastern book-making traditions.

Affidavit paper, also known as oath paper, is the catalyst for Khan's artistic activity. It is used for all government papers in Pakistan. National emblems like the star and crescent, as well as motifs and designs from Islamic art and design, are often seen on affidavit paper.

Contracts are written and signed on this paper, which signifies jurisdiction and possession, and which has been handed down through the centuries. Khan found the affidavit stamp's production to be similar to her engraving and screen printing, and she started to combine these techniques with pattern-cutting and embroidery to create miniature clothes.