The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has chosen the six finalists for its 2010 Hugo Boss Prize, Carol Vogel reports for the New York Times. The hundred-thousand-dollar award, given every two years and named for the German menswear company that sponsors it, goes to an individual who has made an important contribution to contemporary art.

Unlike many art prizes, this one has no restrictions on age or nationality, so the finalists are often a mix of international figures, and that is true this year. “That there are artists from the Middle East and Asia reflects how we continue to learn more and more about art around the world,” said Nancy Spector, chief curator of the foundation and chairwoman of the six-person jury that will select the winner.

The Hugo Boss Prize winner will be announced in the fall of 2010 and will also receive a solo show in 2011 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

This year’s list, which was announced on Thursday evening, is an eclectic one that leans heavily toward conceptual and performance artists. It includes no painters. The finalists are Beijing artist Cao Fei; German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann; Natascha Sadr Haghighian, a Berlin-based conceptual artist; Roman Ondak, a Slovakian artist who represented his country in the 2009 Venice Biennale; Lebanese artist Walid Raad; and the Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul.