For its third edition, the BNP Paribas Banque Privée Prize – A Focus on the French Scene, endowed with €40,000, was awarded to Sara Ouhaddou, represented by Galerie Polaris, during the opening of Art Paris on April 8, 2026, in the presence of the jury members.
The BNP Paribas Banque Privée Prize – A Focus on the French Scene recognizes the career of a living artist from the French art scene. Through this award, BNP Paribas Banque Privée supports an artist’s career while also highlighting the work of their gallery in promoting their practice and expanding its reach.
The winner of this third edition was selected from 16 nominees drawn from the selection of the 2026 guest curator, Loïc Le Gall, Director of Passerelle, Centre for Contemporary Art in Brest, as part of his thematic focus Babel – Art and Language in France. According to guest curator Loïc Le Gall, Sara Ouhaddou, a French Moroccan artist born in 1986, explores language as a system of signs embedded within cultural, social, and political histories often situated at the margins of dominant narratives. Through ceramics, sculpture, installation, and drawing, the artist examines how forms, motifs, and gestures circulate across culture – transforming, transmitting, or disappearing over time.
The winner was selected during the opening of Art Paris 2026 by a prestigious jury composed of figures from the art and cultural world, united in their commitment to supporting French artistic creation:
Fabrice Bagne, Head of BNP Paribas Banque Privée ; Valérie Duponchelle, journalist and art critic ; Loïc Le Gall, guest curator of Art Paris 2026 and Director of Passerelle, Brest ; Christine Macel, Chief Curator ; Vera Michalski, President of Libella Publishing Group and the Jan Michalski Foundation ; Alfred Pacquement, independant curator ; Guillaume Piens, Fair Director of Art Paris ; Floriane de Saint-Pierre, President of the Friends of the Centre Pompidou.
« We are delighted to once again support Art Paris this year, and particularly the French scene, through the BNP Paribas Banque Privée Prize. Art must remain a privileged space at the heart of society, as it is for our clients and partners. We are therefore naturally committed to supporting French artistic creation. The jury and I are pleased to highlight Sara Ouhaddou, this year’s laureate, for her remarkable works, inspired by a vibrant multicultural palette. We wish her every success.»
Fabrice Bagne, Head of BNP Paribas Banque Privée
« I am first and foremost delighted to observe the growing prominence of the BNP Paribas Banque Privée Prize – A Focus on the French Scene within the French prize landscape in just three years. It serves a real purpose in showcasing artists from the French scene and has become a genuine career accelerator following Nathalie du Pasquier in 2024 and Thomas Lévy-Lasne in 2025, the jury unanimously awarded the prize to Sara Ouhaddou. The jury wished to highlight both an original practice that integrates traditional craftsmanship into visual works incorporating language as abstract symbols, and the artist’s commitment as a driver of economic, social, and cultural change through the dialogues she builds with artisans around the world, particularly in Morocco. »
Guillaume Piens, Fair Director of Art Paris
About de Sara Ouhaddou
Sara Ouhaddou, a Franco-Moroccan artist born in 1986, is an emerging figure in the contemporary art scene. Her work examines language as a system of signs embedded in cultural, social, and political histories. Exhibited in numerous museums and international institutions, her pieces highlight the complexities of how signs and symbols circulate between communities.
Launched in 2024 by BNP Paribas Banque Privée and Art Paris, the BNP Paribas Banque Privée Prize – A Focus on the French Scene reflects the bank’s longstanding commitment to supporting the French art scene. As the first private bank in France to create, as early as 1975, a dedicated art advisory service, BNP Paribas Banque Privée continues its patronage of contemporary creation through this prize. The award naturally complements the support system for the French scene developed by Art Paris since 2018, which each year associates the subjective, historical, and critical perspective of a guest curator with a selection of French artists proposed by participating galleries around a defined theme. Recognizing the career of a living artist from the French scene, regardless of age or notoriety, the prize pursues a dual objective: supporting an artist’s career while promoting the work of their gallery and fostering dialogue between generations by highlighting connections between established works and those of emerging artists. For its third edition, endowed with €40,000, the prize is awarded to one of the artists featured in the thematic focus Babel: Art and Language in France, curated by Loïc Le Gall. Nathalie du Pasquier and Thomas Lévy-Lasne were the first laureates in 2024 and 2025, now joined by Sara Ouhaddou for the 2026 edition.
A regional yet cosmopolitan fair focused on discovery, Art Paris has been committed to supporting the French scene. Since 2018, it has paired the subjective, historical, and critical perspective of a guest curator with the selection of specific projects by French artists proposed by participating galleries around a defined theme. These have included: artists on the margins of history (François Piron, 2018), a French scene of another kind (Camille Morineau / AWARE, 2019), common and uncommon histories (Gaël Charbau, 2020), portrait and figuration Hervé Mikaeloff, 2021), natural histories (Alfred Pacquement, 2022), art and engagement (Marc Donnadieu, 2023), fragile utopias (Éric de Chassey, 2024), Immortelle: A Focus on Figurative Painting in France (Amélie Adamo & Numa Hambursin, 2025), and for 2026, Babel – Art and Language in France curated by Loïc Le Gall.
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