Kelly Sinnapah Mary and James Cohan Gallery Awarded the 5th Edition of the CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025 

Miami Beach, December 4, 2025 — Kelly Sinnapah Mary and James Cohan Gallery are winners of the 2025 CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize. Now in its fifth year, the award recognizes outstanding contemporary creation and acknowledges the important role of galleries in furthering the careers of artists from the French art scene globally.

Co-organized by Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, and the CPGA (Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art / French Professional Committee of Art Galleries), the CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize sustains the work of contemporary artists through the issuance of a $15,000 award to be shared between a living French or France-based artist and their representing gallery, acknowledging significant artistic contributions.

This year’s winning artist, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, born in Guadeloupe, France, creates paintings, sculptures, and installations that draw upon the complex interrelationships between folklore, literature, inheritance, history, and the natural world. Sinnapah Mary’s work is rooted both materially and narratively in the artist’s immediate environment of the Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe, a French overseas department, and her own evolving understanding of her ancestral origins. This landscape, with its verdant forests and mangroves, consistently serves as both character and metaphor: as Sinnapah Mary transfigures her personal history into fantastical narratives, she underscores issues of colonialism and the Anthropocene.

The winning gallery, James Cohan, is a contemporary art gallery with two locations in New York’s Tribeca, and a third space on the Lower East Side. Its diverse programming includes solo exhibitions and thematic group exhibitions every year, which often span in three galleries. In the fall of 1999, James Cohan opened on West 57th Street. The gallery moved to Chelsea in 2002.

“We are thrilled with the jury’s selection of the Kelly Sinnapah Mary, whose work was previously featured in the 2018 Villa Albertine Miami program. Since its inception, Villa Albertine has been committed to supporting new and emerging voices; seeing Sinnapah Mary’s work shine at Art Basel Miami is a striking affirmation of this commitment,” stated Mohamed Bouabdallah, Cultural Counselor of France in the United States and Director of Villa Albertine.

“I am deeply honored to receive the CPGA-Étant Donnés Prize,” stated Kelly Sinnapah Mary. “This recognition means so much to me, not only as an artist but as someone whose work seeks to bridge histories, geographies, and identities that are often kept separate. My practice is rooted in the complexities of the Guadeloupean experience—the intersections of Indigenous, African, European, and southeast Asian cultures that shape our region and my own heritage. This prize represents an important acknowledgment of voices and narratives from the margins, and I am grateful to Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation for their commitment to supporting artists who are expanding the conversation about what French and Francophone art can be,” the artist continued.

First introduced in 2019 and brought to Art Basel Miami Beach in 2022, the CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize underscores Villa Albertine and CPGA’s commitment to excellence in contemporary art and amplifying the French art scene worldwide. Any gallery presenting at least one work from a living French or France-based artist is eligible to apply for the CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize.

For its fifth year, CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize was conferred by a jury of respected French and American art patrons and leaders. In total, 21 artists were in competition for this year’s prize.

This year’s jury was comprised of:

• Lena Baume, Philanthropist and art collector
• Celia Birbragher, Colombian editor, researcher, collector, artist, critic,
• leader, and entrepreneur
• Rodolphe Blavy, Special Advisor, IMF and Collector
• Cathleen Chaffee, Chief Curator, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
• Catherine Petitgas, Art historian, philanthropist, and collector

The jury collectively stated, “We are pleased to award the prize to Kelly Sinnapah Mary at James Cohan Gallery. The jury would like to recognize in Sinnapah Mary‘s work deep cross cultural references and dialogue with art history grounded in a strong metaphorical character. Additionally, the jury recognizes the excellence of Sylvie Selig at mor charpentier.”

Following Kapwani Kiwanga who first won the prize with Galerie Jérôme Poggi in 2019; Julien Creuzet with his two galleries, High Art and Andrew Kreps Gallery, in 2022; Daniel Otero Torres with mor charpentier in 2023; and Johanna Mirabel with Galerie Nathalie Obadia in 2024, Kelly Sinnapah Mary and James Cohan Gallery have been awarded the CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize in 2025.

For the CPGA, which has a long history of representing art galleries in France, this prize is part of a series of three related international awards, held annually and that recognize French and France-based artists and their galleries at major international fairs: the FLUXUS-CPGA Prize at Frieze London, the Emerige-CPGA Prize at ARCO Madrid, and the CPGA – Villa Albertine Étant Donnés Prize at Art Basel Miami Beach. 

Named after Villa Albertine’s flagship visual arts program, the CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize also honors a legacy of fostering transatlantic cultural exchange. Since 1994, the Etant Donnés program has supported over 700 artists, 50 curators, and 350+ projects in 200 institutions across 87 cities in the U.S. and France.

Ėtant Donnés is organized by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation with the exclusive sponsorship of the AXA Foundation for Human Progress, in partnership with Institut Français, the French Ministry of Culture and Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and ADAGP.

2025 Artists and Galleries Participating in Competition for the CPGA–Villa Albertine Ėtant Donnés Prize

Nino Kapanadze / Almeida & Dale 
Pablo Reinoso / Barro 
Philippe Decrauzat / Cayón
Julien Creuzet / Document 
Valérie Belin / Edwynn Houk Gallery
Marielle Plaisir / Fredric Snitzer Gallery
Julio Villani / Galeria Raquel Arnaud
Roméo Mivekannin / Galerie Cécile Fakhoury
Louise Sartor / Galerie Crèvecoeur 
Christine Safa / Galerie Lelong
Eva Jospin / Galleria Continua
Kelly Sinnapah Mary / James Cohan 
David Douard /Konrad Fischer Galerie 
Dora Jeridi / Marianne Boesky Gallery
Sylvie Selig / mor charpentier
Guillaume Bresson / Nathalie Obadia 
Alexis Ralaivao / Olney Gleason
Iván Argote / Perrotin
Julia Kater / Simões de Assis
Jiab Prachakul /Timothy Taylor 
Angela Detanico & Rafael Lain / Vermelho