French-Iranian artist Pooya Abbasian has been named the winner of the Art & Environment Prize 2025, awarded by Lee Ufan Arles in collaboration with Maison Guerlain. Now in its third edition, the prize celebrates contemporary artistic practices that engage meaningfully with environmental and ecological concerns.
This year’s edition attracted a record of 552 applications with six finalists selected, including Abbasian, alongside Dana Cojbuc, Virginie Ittah, Marie-Luce Nadal, Ana Sant’Anna and Laure Wants, each exploring the diverse intersections of art, science and nature through their respective practices.
The final selection was made by a jury chaired by artist Lee Ufan and included Clément Chéroux, Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, Charlotte Le Bon, filmmaker and visual artist, Caroline Corbasson, winner of the 2024 Art & Environment Prize, as well as Gabrielle Saint-Genis, Ann Caroline Prazan and Claire Coletti from Maison Guerlain, Esra Joo and Juliette Vignon from Lee Ufan Arles.
Abbasian, who lives and works in Paris, was recognised for a body of work that engages with the transformation and circulation of images in today’s digital and socio-political landscapes. Through an exploration of photography, video, drawing and installation, the artist’s practice interrogates how images are shaped, distributed and distorted.
For his upcoming residency, Abbasian will develop a new project entitled Séneçon, a poetic exploration of wild plants often dismissed as weeds. Frequently overlooked and uprooted, these resilient species are central to Abbasian’s reflection on migration, marginality and ecological memory. The residency also aims to foster collaboration and dialogue between the artist, local communities and environmental thinkers, while offering visibility on a local and an international scale.
As part of the award, the programme also includes curatorial and institutional support to develop a site-specific project that will culminate in a solo exhibition in the summer of 2026.
