Petrit Halilaj Wins 2027 Nasher Prize, Donates $100,000 to Kosovar Foundation

The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has honored Petrit Halilaj with the 2027 Nasher Prize, a biennial award of $100,000 that acknowledges his significant impact on the field of sculpture. Halilaj has chosen to donate the entire amount to the Hajde! Foundation, a nonprofit he established with his sister in 2014 to aid artists from Kosovo. Carlos Basualdo, the center's director, commended Halilaj for his ability to weave together themes of joy, tenderness, and pain in his art. Halilaj, originally from Kostërrc, Kosovo, sought refuge in Albania after Serbian forces devastated his village during the Kosovo war. He later pursued studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan and relocated to Berlin in 2009, where his artistic practice merges sculpture, drawing, text, and performance to evoke a blend of childhood imagination and personal as well as political narratives.