Judges, principals and winner of the 2026 LUX Patina Art Residency. Back row from left: Maria Sukkar, Darius Sanai and Arch Hades. Front row sitting: Rachel Verghis, Ilaria Ferragamo, winner Dina Ali, Lexie Rodriguez and Catherine Loewe
As the art world took a quick breath between Frieze London and Art Basel Paris, an esteemed roster of patrons, collectors and artists convened in the home of Maria Sukkar to celebrate Dina Ali, the winner of the 2026 LUX Patina Art Residency
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Twelve judges from the top of the art and culture world, nominators with personal knowledge of some of the world’s most interesting artists, and an art residency in Japan. The second edition of the Patina Art Residency, conceived by LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai and chaired by Maria Sukkar, LUX Senior Contributing Editor and Co-Chair of the Tate Middle East North Africa Acquisitions Committee, builds on the success of the first edition of the prize last year, when artist Shezad Dawood was awarded a residency at Patina Maldives.
This year, the winning artist, Dina Ali, will travel to Patina Osaka, which opened in 2025. Based in Los Angeles, Ali is a Syrian-Palestinian multimedia artist with a background in architecture and urban design, who for the last ten years worked as a professor in city planning. In 2025, Ali resigned and turned her full attention towards her practice.
Winner Dina Ali, presented with the prize by Lexie Rodriguez, Vice President for lifestyle at Capella Hotel Group
Having grown up in a Japanese-Arab community, Ali draws together Japanese materials with Arab motifs in order to reflect on the construction of cultural belonging. Ali’s relationship to home and heritage is complex; she has lived in 15 cities and only this year visited her homeland. Pair this with her acute, academic understanding of spaces and their socio-cultural significance, and you see how Ali’s work so honestly responded to this year’s residency theme, ‘Rooted Realms’.
Judging this year was a prestigious panel composed of Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Ilaria Ferragamo, Arturo Galansino, Arch Hades, Christian Levett, Alan Lo, Catherine Loewe, Francesco Maccapani Missoni, Simon de Pury, Sana Rezwan and Rachel Verghis.
From left: Darius Sanai, Arch Hades, Rachel Verghis and Jonathan Newhouse
Artist Rex Southwick and Irena Bolensky
The award was announced by Darius Sanai and presented by Lexie Rodriguez, Vice President for lifestyle at Capella Hotel Group, at a salon in the home of jury chair Maria Sukkar. What followed was a moving conversation between Maria and Dina on her trajectory as an artist and her desire to commune with landscape, and engage Japanese materials in her craft during her month long residency at Patina Osaka.
The fair season can very quickly overstimulate the art world, leaving it slightly numb; amidst the hum of wearied patrons trading Frieze war stories, Dina Ali’s win struck a distinctly sincere chord.
Photos by Captivate Imagery
