Palestinian-American artist Emily Jacir was named the winner of the Hugo Boss Prize 2008 last night, the Guggenheim Museum announced today. The $100,000 prize is presented biennially by Hugo Boss and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to recognize significant achievement in contemporary art.

Jacir, a multimedia artist, won the Golden Lion Award for an artist under 40 at the 2007 Venice Biennale. The judges for this year's Hugo Boss Prize said of her work: "Emily Jacir's rigorous conceptual practice — comprising photography, video, performance, and installation-based work — bears witness to a culture torn by war and displacement....Jacir combines the roles of archivist, activist, and poet to create poignant and memorable works of art that are at once intensely personal and deeply political."

Finalists included Swiss artists Christoph Büchel and Roman Signer, Americans Patty Chang and Sam Durant, and Danish artist Joachim Koester.

Jacir will have an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum from February 6 through April 15, 2009.