Wael Shawky shortlisted for Artist of the Year in the 2025 Apollo Awards

5 November 2025

Wael Shawky’s entry for the Egyptian Pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale drew huge crowds. Drama 1882 – a film of an opera (written by the artist) about the nationalist Urabi revolution against imperial influence in Egypt (1879–82) – was the prelude to a year that has seen the artist’s complexity and narrative brilliance rewarded. With exhibitions in Seoul, Daegu, Los Angeles, Edinburgh and Arles, Shawky’s knotty interactions with artifice and power have confirmed his projects as compelling art for our times.

Find out more via Apollo.

Image: Portrait of Wael Shawky at Egyptian Pavilion, 2024. Courtesy of Sfeir Semler Gallery, Lisson Gallery, Lia Rumma, and Barakat Contemporary. Photography: George Darrell, Lisson Gallery