The Picker Award

Facilitating publication

Ghislaine Picker initiated in 2007 a project intended to benefit younger - or less young – artists and created the Association for the Promotion of Emerging artists – APARTE.

The association’s aim is to use every appropriate means to assist artists (and in particular visual artists) who are taking their first steps in the kind of environment where their talent can develop, in Switzerland and /or elsewhere, notably providing support for the publication of catalogues and the creation of links, with a view to the compilation of documentation and the staging of exhibitions.

The intention is to allow an “emerging” artist chosen by the appointed president to publish a first monographic publication of their work. The selection of the laureate and the presentation are made by a leading figure from the art world, artist or curator. An exhibition takes place on the occasion of the publication.


The competition is open to visual artists regardless of the technique(s) they practise.
There is no age limit. Candidates must not already have published a solo catalogue, or be represented by a gallery.
They must not be students, either undergraduate or postgraduate, at a public or private art school.


2007-2008 award

President : Eric Corne, internationally-respected curator. links
Laureate : Alexandre Joly a young artist from Geneva.(selected among 50 candidates) web site
Exhibition in the autumn of 2008 at Art en Ile, Geneva.

2009-2010 award

President : Emmanuel Latreille, Directeur, Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain du Languedoc Roussillon (F)
Laureate : Geneviève Favre-Petroff, a young swiss artist web site
Exhibition to take place in Aigues Mortes, France, in July 2010.

2011-2012 award

President : Pascal Beausse, art critic, professor in the HEAD, Geneva and curator in Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris
Laureate : Laurent Faulon http://laurent-faulon.over-blog.com/

Contact : Ghislaine Picker: gpicker@bluewin.ch - info@art-emergent.ch