The Palais de Lomé (Togo) has been hosting the very first exhibition of the “Toyota Tsusho CFAO African Art Award” since June 11, 2026. Through this award, Toyota Tsusho Corporation and CFAO have a clear ambition: to make African contemporary art a means of circulating ideas, imaginaries, and narratives between Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Designed as a long-term platform rather than a one-time reward, this Award aims to provide emerging artists from the continent with increased visibility, institutional recognition, and concrete development opportunities.
A prize designed as a tool for influence
The organizers immediately set the stage: “Africa is now one of the most dynamic cultural spaces on the planet.” It is in this perspective that they defend the idea that art and culture are not just an added bonus, but fully participate in how the continent asserts itself on the international stage. Richard Bielle, CEO of CFAO, summarizes this orientation by stating that art and culture are “essential vectors of influence on an international scale.”
The Award is thus part of a broader commitment claimed by Toyota Tsusho and CFAO in Africa, under the banner “With Africa For Africa.”
Beyond the institutional display, the project assumes a dual function. First, it aims to support emerging artists by providing them with access to a communication platform, financial support, a catalog, and international exhibitions. Secondly, it aims to create lasting bridges between artistic scenes, art professionals, and audiences from multiple continents. “Our vision is that the works and narratives carried by these artists will help create bridges between Africa and the rest of the world, as well as between Africa, Asia, and Europe,” explains Ichiro Kashitani, Vice President of the Board of Directors of Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
A selection designed on a continental scale
One of the strengths of the program lies in its selection process. For this first edition, 35 nominators – curators, critics, journalists, and patrons – were invited to propose artists from their local scenes. This first step resulted in a hundred names. A curatorial team then narrowed the selection down to 12 artists, before an international jury selected five winners.
The jury brings together personalities based in Africa, Asia, and Europe, including Chris Dercon, Guillaume Désanges, N’Goné Fall, Alicia Knock, Hiromi Kurosawa, and Sonia Lawson, alongside representatives of the founding groups.
Five winners, five narratives of contemporary Africa
The exhibition presents the works of the five artists awarded in this first edition. The Grand Prize goes to Zimbabwean Moffat Takadiwa, an artist based in Harare, whose work transforms discarded materials – computer keys, bottle caps, toothbrushes – into dense sculptural compositions.
The two Excellence Awards distinguish Gosette Lubondo, a photographer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Unathi Mkonto, a South African artist. The former explores memory through staged scenes in abandoned or historically charged locations, where past and present coexist in layered images. “I explore how places retain memory and extend history,” she says. The latter, trained in architecture, develops a practice situated between sculpture, space, and performance. His work offers open forms, crossed by a reflection on the spatial legacies of inequalities. “Creating languages from forms to complexify our everyday experience,” he says.
The Sponsor Awards go to Katlego C. L. Twala from Botswana, and Tizta Berhanu from Ethiopia. The former favors intimate figuration, attentive to the emotional density of gestures, presences, and atmospheres, while the latter unfolds a painting of relationships, empathy, and interdependence, nourished in particular by the concept of agapè.
The Palais de Lomé, an African anchor of the project
The choice of the Palais de Lomé to host the launch press conference and the first major exhibition is not incidental. The venue, located in the heart of the Togolese capital, is presented as a major partner of this first edition, serving as an exhibition space, curatorial relay, and anchor point on the continent. Set in a former governor’s palace overlooking the ocean, in the heart of a public park, the site is described as a multidisciplinary artistic center dedicated to contemporary African creation.
This pan-African dimension is at the heart of the partnership. Sonia Lawson, founding director of the Palais de Lomé, praises “an initiative that perfectly reflects the pan-African spirit and the ambitions of excellence that drive our institution.” She adds: “We applaud the commitment of Toyota Tsusho and CFAO, whose support has helped create a real springboard for talent on the continent.”
From Lomé to Tokyo, then Paris
The Award does not stop at announcing the winners. Its calendar already outlines an international trajectory: an exhibition at the Palais de Lomé between June and August 2026, a Japanese stage in autumn 2026, and a presentation at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris between April and May 2027.
This circulation, embedded in the project from the outset, is at the heart of its promise: to integrate emerging African artists into various exhibition contexts, without separating their international recognition from their roots on the continent.
