East Contemporary Wins Opening by Allianz Award at ARCOmadrid 2022

Milan-based gallery East Contemporary won the Opening by Allianz award at ARCOmadrid 2022 for its booth featuring Polish artist Ania Bak (b. 1984) and Lebanese artist Nour Jaouda (b. 1997). The gallery was selected for the Opening section, which includes fifteen galleries under seven years old, curated by Ovul Durnusoglu and Julia Morandeira. The jury praised the gallery's strong curatorial perspective, noting that the works created a conversation between Eastern European and North African Mediterranean traditions. East Contemporary was founded in 2020 by Polish gallerists Agnieszka Faferek and Julia Korzycka, located near Piazzale Loreto in Milan. The award reimburses the cost of the gallery's booth at the fair. Additionally, the ARCO Foundation acquired a work by Nour Jaouda for the CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles, selected by Manuel Segade and Vicent Honoré. The gallery had previously received the Marval Collections award at Artissima in November 2021 in the New Entry section. This was East Contemporary's first international fair and its second contemporary art fair overall. Ania Bak presented large painted canvases assembled in organic, fragmented layers reflecting personal experience. Nour Jaouda, who lives between London and Cairo, showed installations and sculptures of painted canvases with natural pigments, wrought iron, and cement inspired by Cairo's materials.