Since their creation in 2016, the AWARE Prizes have played a vital role in promoting and assuring recognition for women and non-binary artists within the contemporary art world. This initiative has become a significant vector for visibility for the artists, reflected in exhibitions and notable prizes across the contemporary art scene. For the 9th edition of the AWARE Prizes in 2025, two prizes will be attributed: the Nouveau Regard Prize, honouring a mid-career artist, and the Outstanding Merit Prize, awarded to an artist with over 40 years of career experience. Once again this year, four professionals from the cultural sector—will each preselect a pair of artists for the Nouveau Regard and Outstanding Merit Prizes. They will present and defend their nominees for their nominees before a jury of seven prominent cultural figures.

The winner of the Nouveau Regard prize benefits from a residency organised in partnership with the Villa Albertine, a French cultural institution in the United States that hosts 60 residencies throughout the United States each year, and the A.I.R. Gallery in New York. The A.I.R. Gallery, a historic feminist venue that dedicated an exhibition to French women artists curated by Aline Dallier in 1976, will accompany the laureate throughout their stay in the United States by organising visits and meetings with curators, art critics, gallery owners and journalists. Once the artist returns to France, AWARE will contact French art centres to co-produce a personal exhibition of the artist’s work in France in partnership with D.C.A. As part of its partnership with AWARE, the Cnap (Centre national des arts plastiques) will offer the winner of the Nouveau Regard prize the acquisition of works that will enter its collection.

The winner of the Outstanding Merit prize 2025 will receive a €10,000 grant. In partnership with Manuella Éditions, AWARE will publish a book-length interview with the artist, documenting their contribution to the history of art of the twentieth century and allowing them to reflect on their career in their own words. This publication benefits from the support of ADAGP.

Once again in 2025, four commissioners – active professionals from the world of culture: art historians, critics, curators – have each shortlisted two artists, nominated respectively for the Nouveau Regard prize (mid-career artists) and the Outstanding Merit prize (women artists with careers of 40 years or more). The commissioners – Rose Bideaux, Oksana Karpovets, Horya Makhlouf and Paul-Aimé William – will present and defend the artists’ work before a jury composed of seven major figures from the world of art and culture. The jury will be chaired in 2025 by Béatrice Salmon (director of the Cnap, Centre national des arts plastiques) and composed of : Camille Morineau (co-founder and Executive Director at AWARE), Esther Ferrer (artist, winner of the AWARE Outstanding Merit Prize in 2016), Sandra Patron (director of the Capc, musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux), Lourdes Mendez Perez (feminist anthropologist, Universidad del País Vasco), Gaëtane Verna (Executive Director, Wexner Center for the Arts, Colombus, Ohio) and Chương-Đài Võ (curator and researcher).

The winning artists will be announced in March.

The AWARE Prizes are supported by CHANEL and the French Ministry of Culture.