Artist Emily Jacir. (Photo by Sarah Shatz 2008)

Emily Jacir, the 37-year-old artist of Palestinian descent who produces photographs, videos, sculpture and drawings that address themes of belonging and displacement as they relate to Palestinian identity, has won this year's Hugo Boss Prize.

The $100,000 award, established in 1996 by the Guggenheim Museum and named for the German men's wear company that sponsors it, is given every two years for significant achievement in contemporary art.

The other finalists this year were two Swiss artists, Christoph Buchel and Roman Signer; two Americans, Patty Chang and Sam Durant; and the Danish artist Joachim Koester.

Ms. Jacir, who divides her time between Ramallah, a town on the West Bank, and New York, won the Golden Lion Award for an artist under 40 at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Her work there, a room-size installation in the Italian pavilion, documented the assassination of the Palestinian intellectual Wael Zwaiter by Israeli agents in Rome in 1972 for what they believed was his role in the massacre of Israeli athletes at that year's Summer Olympics.

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Using photographs, objects, texts and interviews, she created a narrative that reflects on her own anguish over the Middle East.

Speaking of Ms. Jacir, Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim's chief curator and a member of the Boss prize jury, said: "Although her work is clearly very political, she deals with her topic in a sophisticated, unique fashion that transcends politicized art. It's complex, poetic and open-ended. And the fact that she can operate from both Palestine and the United States allows her to have a broader overview, which I think is really important."

Last December Ms. Jacir won a Prince Claus Award from the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development in The Hague. She also participated in the National and International Studio Program at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York in 2000 and 2001 and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council studio residency program in 1999 and 2000.

In addition to the monetary award, the prize includes an exhibition of the winner's work, which will be shown at the Guggenheim from Feb. 6 to April 15.

To read the full article please visit The New York Times