Prize dedicated to African women artists expands to Senegal, announces 2026 winners

The Ghanaian-French artist Kwama Frigaux and the Senegalese Fatoumata Sy have been announced as the joint winners of the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize. The prize, founded by the London and Accra-based 1957 Gallery in 2021 to support artists in Ghana and its diaspora, has this year expanded to include artists from Senegal, in partnership with Institut Français du Sénégal. Frigaux and Fatoumata have been awarded $5,000 each, as well as a three-month residency (in Senegal for the Ghanaian and in Ghana for the Senegalese), and solo exhibitions.

The prize is named after a former Ashanti queen mother, renowned for her anticolonial resistance at a time when Ghana was under British rule. The call for applications for this year’s edition opened in June and ran until September, and was open to Ghanaian and Senegalese women artists aged 18 or older, based either in their home countries or in the diaspora. The winners were announced during Accra Cultural Week (29 October -2 November), which is organised by Gallery 1957. On view there until 5 December 2026 is The Lore of Care: Maternal Acts of Devotion , a solo show by Theresah Ankomah, the winner of the 2025 Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize.

Frigaux and Sy were selected by a jury comprising Touria El Glaoui, the founder of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair; the Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey; Marie Hélène Pereira, a senior curator at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt; Jeanne Barral, a curator at the Fondation Cartier; the collector Alexa Waley-Cohen; and Dominique Heyse-Moore, the senior curator of contemporary British art at Tate Britain.

Runners up of the prize participate in a mentorship programme, which provides support which provides support on topics such as grant applications and entrepreneurship. Mentors this year include the Nigerian artist Modupeola Fadugba and Aisha Ayensu, the founder of the Ghanaian luxury fashion brand Christie Brown.

"I think [it's] an incredible programme that helps drive the longevity of [the prize's] impact,” Leila Zakhem, the director of the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize, tells The Art Newspaper . “And it really creates a beautiful community.” She hopes that the jury members may take an interest in applicants' work and practice beyond the review process.

Zakhem explains that her team considered several countries for the expansion, including Nigeria. A key part of this search was finding a "very good implementing partner." The Institut Français du Sénégal, which is "a non-commercial space [has] a lot of credibility,” she adds, “and they were very excited to partner with us on the prize.” Zakhem says that she hopes the expansion will help develop and create a bridge between art communities in English- and French-speaking West Africa.

The planned next steps for the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize are to expand further into West Africa, and then potentially beyond, with winners selected from different regions of the continent. “The goal is eventually to be the leading Pan-African female art prize on the continent,” Zakhem says.