Kelly Sinnapah Mary and James Cohan Gallery Win the 2025 CPGA – Villa Albertine Étant Donnés Prize

Now in its fifth year, the $15,000 award honors excellence in contemporary creation and highlights the essential role of galleries in elevating artists from the French art scene internationally.

Selected from among 21 artists represented by French and international galleries, Kelly Sinnapah Mary was recognized for work rooted in the complexities of the Guadeloupean experience and the intersections of Indigenous, African, European, and southeast Asian cultures that shaped her own heritage.

Additionally, the jury recognized the excellence of Sylvie Selig at mor charpentier.

About the Artist

Born in Guadeloupe, France in 1981, Kelly Sinnapah Mary 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. As a child, the artist identified as Afro-Caribbean but later discovered that she is a descendant of indentured workers from the South Indian state Tamil Nadu, who were brought to the Caribbean following the abolition of slavery to replace enslaved labor. 

Her work has been presented both in Guadeloupe and internationally at institutions including the Aicon Gallery (New York), the Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam, Netherlands), the IDB Gallery (Washington, DC), and the Osage Foundation (Hong Kong) as well as in Villa Albertine Miami’s 2018 program.

The CPGA – Villa Albertine Étant Donnés Prize

Co-organized by Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, and the CPGA (Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art), 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.  

First introduced in 2019 and brought to Art Basel Miami Beach in 2022, the prize underscores the commitment of Villa Albertine and CPGA to amplifying the French contemporary art scene globally. Any gallery presenting at least one work by a living French or France-based artist at the fair is eligible to apply.

For its fifth edition, the prize was decided by an esteemed jury of French and American art patrons and leaders, including 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; and Catherine Petitgas, art historian, philanthropist, and collector.

Following Kapwani Kiwanga (2019), Julien Creuzet (2022), Daniel Otero Torres (2023), and Johanna Mirabel (2024), Kelly Sinnapah Mary joins the roster of past laureates.