Toby Ziegler is Awarded The Prix Jean-François Prat 2025 at the Fondation Bredin Prat
Every year since 2012, the Jean-François Prat Prize for Contemporary Art has been awarded at the beginning of the summer to an emerging painter. For the 2025 edition, which is dedicated to abstract painting, three finalists were chosen among eight candidates.
The first one is Indonesian artist Syaiful Aulia Garibaldi, who uses science (biology, fungi, mycelium, the infinitesimal) to achieve an original aesthetic made of mutating forms. Symbols of death and decay, but also life, these shapes illustrate an ephemeral way of existing in a perpetual cycle. There’s also Lisa Jo, whose digital research (images, colour palette, fidelity to the brilliance of tablets) and freehand work are prevalent. But that’s not the heart of her subject: for her, painting is the only frame of expression that can bring together fragmentation and the unity of the mind and human bodies. Finally, Toby Ziegler’s innovative process merges sensitive painting and the digital, sliding one over the other into intricate abstract compositions. In an age of increasingly challenging issues raised by artificial intelligence on living organisms, his work has proven to be an interesting approach.
Last night, the jury chaired by Managing Director of the Fondation Cartier Chris Dercon awarded the prize to Toby Ziegler, after listening to the pleadings of the three recorders Juliette Lecorne, Fabrice Stroun and Marc Donnadieu. During the ceremony, we met Laurent Le Bon, Mouna Mekouar, Martin Hatebur, Patricia Marshall, Xavier Rey, Anne-Laure Buffart, Matthieu Poirier, Charlotte Ardon, Marie Maertens, Liyu Yeo, Fabien Vallerian, Arnaud Cabri-Wiltzer, Olivier Michelon, Olivier Bec , Floriane de Saint-Pierre, Jean-Paul Agon and Philippe Dian.
Photos: Michael Huard et Ayka Lux
