Paula Santomé

The artist Paula Santomé (*1994, Spain) has been awarded the Manor Art Prize Basel 2027. The Manor Art Prize includes an exhibition and a publication. The exhibition is scheduled to take place at Kunstmuseum Basel in autumn 2027.

Santomé lives and works in Basel and belongs to a young generation of promising contemporary artists whose work explores questions of embodiment, transformation and materiality. She has developed a distinctive visual language that interweaves organic forms, tactile qualities and poetic references.

She describes her practice as follows: “I understand fiction and narration as powerful tools for imagining new possibilities. A fundamental driving force behind my work is a persistent unease with the reality that surrounds me.”

In her artistic practice, Santomé combines drawing, relief and sculpture in multilayered, often installation-based works. Her practice is rooted in research into the social challenges facing her generation, particularly emancipation, resistance and resilience. Her works respond to stereotypical attributions and existing power structures. To this end, she draws on found images, personal experiences and inherited myths, which she reassembles and transforms. She deliberately employs fiction and narration to challenge existing orders and make alternative ideas of freedom visible.

Santomé develops representations of the body that consciously resist idealisation: fragmented, contradictory and in a state of constant transformation. She understands the materials she uses, such as aluminium, ceramics and glass, not merely as means to an end but as carriers of meaning—for example, by drawing on traditional techniques such as bas-relief and embossing and transferring them into a contemporary context.

Paula Santomé completed her Master of Fine Arts at the Institute Art Gender Nature at HGK FHNW in Basel in 2022. Prior to this, she studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Pontevedra (University of Vigo, Spain) and participated in exchange programmes in Madrid and Brussels. Her work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad, including at VITRINE (Basel, 2023), Kunst Raum Riehen (2025), and on several occasions as part of Regionale Basel, as well as on international platforms such as the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) in Miami (2024).

The Manor Art Prize

The Manor Art Prize, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022, is one of Switzerland’s most important awards for the promotion of contemporary art. It was established in 1982 by Philippe Nordmann with the aim of providing young Swiss artists with a platform. The prize is awarded annually by an expert jury, rotating between the following cities: Aarau, Basel, Biel, Chur, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Lucerne (for Central Switzerland), Schaffhausen, Sion, St. Gallen and Winterthur. A look at the list of past recipients shows that the Manor Art Prize has provided a springboard to international careers for a significant number of artists.

The expert jury for the Manor Art Prize Basel 2027 consisted of Pierre-André Maus, Chantal Prod’hom, Valerie Nadine Keller, Marion Ritzmann and Kito Nedo.