Nigerian sound artist Emeka Ogboh has been named one of the ten winners of the Chanel Next Prize 2026, marking another significant moment in his internationally acclaimed career. The prestigious biennial award, presented by the Chanel Culture Fund, recognises artists whose practices are reshaping contemporary culture across disciplines, geographies and mediums.
Now in its third edition, the Chanel Next Prize awards each recipient an unrestricted €100,000 grant, alongside access to a two-year mentorship and international networking programme. Unlike many art prizes that focus strictly on emerging talent, the Next Prize is intentionally positioned to support artists at pivotal moments in their careers—when greater freedom, resources and dialogue can lead to deeper experimentation and long-term impact.
Emeka Ogboh: Listening to the City, Remembering the World
Born and raised in Lagos, Emeka Ogboh has built a global reputation for using sound as a powerful artistic material. Through field recordings, radio works, music, and immersive sound installations, Ogboh captures the acoustic textures of everyday life—street vendors, transport hubs, languages, chants, and ambient noise—and reframes them as carriers of memory, politics, migration and identity.
His work often explores how sound travels across borders, particularly within the context of African cities and diasporic movement. Whether documenting the sonic ecology of Lagos or translating experiences of migration in European urban centres, Ogboh invites audiences to “listen” as a way of understanding place, history and belonging. His selection for the Chanel Next Prize reflects a growing international recognition of sound art as a critical contemporary practice and underscores the increasing influence of African artists in shaping global cultural discourse.
A Truly Global Cohort of Winners
For 2026, ten artists from ten different countries were selected, spanning visual art, music, film, performance, fashion and choreography. Alongside Ogboh, the full list of Chanel Next Prize 2026 recipients includes:
- Ambrose Akinmusire – American jazz trumpeter and composer
- Payal Kapadia – Indian filmmaker and screenwriter
- Bárbara Sánchez‑Kane – Mexican fashion designer and artist
- Marco da Silva Ferreira – Portuguese dancer and choreographer
- Pan Daijing – Chinese composer and performance artist
- Andrea Peña – Colombian performance and visual artist
- Álvaro Urbano – Spanish visual artist
- Ayoung Kim – South Korean multimedia artist
- Pol Taburet – French painter and visual artist
The diversity of the cohort—ranging from jazz composition and filmmaking to choreography, fashion and immersive digital worlds—reflects the prize’s non-hierarchical view of artistic practice, where no single medium is privileged over another.
What the Prize Offers: Freedom, Time and Exchange
According to Yana Peel, President of Arts, Culture and Heritage at Chanel, the philosophy behind the award is rooted in trust. The artists are free to use the €100,000 grant however they choose, with no restrictions or reporting requirements. The intention is to provide time, space and security—conditions often lacking in artistic life—so recipients can take risks, deepen research, and build new relationships.
Beyond the financial award, the winners will take part in a two-year programme of shared experiences, mentorship and cultural encounters. Their first collective engagement will be a group visit to Venice during the opening of the Art Biennale in May, offering a setting for dialogue and exchange across disciplines.
A Jury Bridging Art, Film and Performance
The 2026 cohort was selected by an international jury that reflects the prize’s interdisciplinary ethos. The panel included Yana Peel alongside Hans Ulrich Obrist, Cao Fei, Tilda Swinton, Alvin Li, and Ben Roberts. Together, they emphasised artistic evolution as an ongoing process—one that benefits from collaboration, experimentation and cross-cultural exchange rather than fixed career stages.
A Milestone for African Sound Art
Ogboh’s inclusion in the 2026 Chanel Next Prize cohort is significant not only for his individual practice, but also for the wider visibility of African and sound-based art forms on the global stage. His work demonstrates how listening—often overlooked in visual-dominant art histories—can become a radical tool for storytelling, resistance and connection.
As the Chanel Next Prize continues to grow in influence, Emeka Ogboh’s recognition stands as a testament to the power of artists who challenge how we perceive the world—not just through what we see, but through what we hear.
