The 2024-2025 Hayy Jameel Façade Commission Jury

The annual Hayy Jameel Façade Commission is a major opportunity for Saudi and Saudi-based artists to propose, and then create, a monumental public artwork on the 25-metre facade of the complex, Jeddah’s home for the arts. The commission is in keeping with Art Jameel’s long-term commitment to providing upcoming and established artists with opportunities to expand their practices; collaborate and work with established institutions, curators and producers; develop challenging new ideas; and create compelling works for the public realm that engage audiences in dynamic ways.

This is the fourth edition of the Hayy Jameel Façade Commission, and the third to include an Open Call process; proposals are considered by an eminent jury, and a single work selected for production. The jury includes local and international art professionals, curators, artists and museum directors with experience in commissioning and working with artists to produce works for the public realm. This year’s esteemed jury members are:

Curator and visual artist Muhannad Shono
Founder and principal of Counterspace and co-curator of the first Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Sumayya Vally
Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Clare Davies
Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes at Art Jameel, Nora Razian

Stay tuned for the announcement of the winning artist of this year’s commission!

About the jury members:

Muhannad Shono, Curator, and Visual Artist

Muhannad Shono is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Riyadh. He graduated with a degree in Architecture from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran. Shono represented Saudi Arabia at the 59th Venice Biennale with his project The Teaching Tree (2022) and is currently the co-curator of the upcoming Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (2025). His participation in biennials and festivals includes the Sea Art Festival, Busan (2023); Noor Riyadh Festival, Riyadh (2022 and 2023); Lyon Biennale (2022); Diriyah Biennale, Riyadh (2021); and Desert X, Al Ula (2020). Shono has exhibited in various group and solo shows across the region and internationally, including at Louvre Abu Dhabi (2023); Parcours, Art Basel (2022); the British Museum, London (2021 and 2018); GAM Sculpture Garden, Turin (2019); MACBA, Barcelona (2018); Ithra, Dammam (2019); and 21.39 Jeddah Arts, Jeddah (2020 and 2017)

Sumayya Vally, Founder and Principal, Counterspace

Sumayya Vally, the founder and principal of Johannesburg- and London-based architecture and research studio Counterspace, shot to fame in 2021 when, at the age of 31, she became the youngest architect to design the Serpentine Pavilion. Sumayya Vally has engaged deeply with the art world in the two years since working with Serpentine. In 2021, she created memorable and much-lauded installations for Frieze Sculpture and Gagosian and a series of performances for Dhaka Art Summit 2023. Vally became a co-curator of the first Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Clare Davies, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Clare Davies has contributed to a wide range of research, programming, and archival projects related to art and photography in the Middle East since serving as associate curator of the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo between 2004 and 2006. She completed her doctoral dissertation on Egyptian modern art at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, and was subsequently awarded the inaugural Irmgard Coninx Prize Fellowship at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. She is the co-author of Robert Morris, Object Sculpture: 1960–65 (Yale UP, 2014) and has published regularly on contemporary art from the Arab world.

Nora Razian, Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes

Nora Razian is a seasoned curator with a diverse background in managing exhibitions and contributing to curatorial discourse. Currently, she oversees the exhibitions programme at the Jameel Arts Centre and Hayy Jameel, bringing her expertise to curatorial endeavors across various platforms. Nora’s previous experience includes leadership roles at the Sursock Museum in Beirut and curating public programs at Tate in London. She holds an MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics from Goldsmiths College, London, where she not only pursued academic studies but also designed and taught the MA course ‘Critical Pedagogy in Contested Space’ at the Centre for Arts and Learning. Her multidisciplinary approach and commitment to innovative curatorial practices continue to shape her contributions to the art world.