The Gérard Foundation unveils the first edition of its Emerging Art Prize: nine contemporary French artists working in painting, sculpture, and photography. Each one already builds a singular practice — recognised by galleries, luxury houses, and the international press — yet still on the threshold of a wider public.
Nine singular voices
The selection brings together painters, sculptors, and photographers whose practice is already established. Silvère Jarrosson — former dancer at the Paris Opera, Villa Medicis resident — explores the extreme behaviours of paint. Roman Feral pairs luxury icons with real butterflies, with works acquired by CHANEL. Maxime Verdier, born in Dieppe in 1991, joins the Casa de Velázquez in September 2026. Léo Caillard sculpts marble through a digital lens — exhibited at the Louvre, the LACMA, the Fondation Cartier. Florian Zumbrunn writes his own algorithms before reworking the prints by hand, between Paris and Tokyo.
From the editorial press to museum walls
Sacha Cohen-Tanugi, known as Itchi, signs collages for The New York Times, Vacheron Constantin, and Prada. Atelier Cléophée draws her pastels for collectors, decorators, and luxury hotels — including in Saudi Arabia. Octave Marsal has been designing Hermès silk scarves for ten years and has directed animations for Universal and Apple TV. Inès Longevial, trained in Toulouse, paints women that reclaim their femininity through skin tones and silence.
An editorial spotlight, not a discovery prize
The Gérard Foundation chose a different angle. Not to distinguish a promising beginner — but to bring already-formed voices to a wider audience. Each artist will be featured on the Foundation's site and Instagram. The aim: to carry these artists from the art world to the public's gaze.
A practice of slowness
What binds these ten? A shared refusal of the era's acceleration. Slow painting, tactile sculpture, patient photography, installations that demand we stop. Far from the noise, they reintroduce a form of attention the era had forgotten. They question, each in their own way, the world they inherited — climate, identities, memory, bodies — without manifesto, without distance. They don't explain. They make visible.
Discover the selection
The full selection is available now at gerardfoundation.org/prix-jeune-creation. Each artist has a dedicated page with a long-form portrait, biography, exhibition room, and a museum-style cartouche for each featured work. The Prize is a non-monetary distinction: it offers visibility, editorial coverage, and lasting institutional support.
“These artists have already found their voice without yet entering the marble of the great institutions. That is the gap we choose to bridge.”
— Gérard Foundation