The Art of Progress Prize Committee & Jury
Prize Chair
Founder & Director, Rosetti Firmenich Art Advisory
Astrid Rosetti
Astrid Rosetti is an art advisor working across post-war and contemporary art. She founded Rosetti Firmenich Art Advisory, where she supports private collectors and institutions with acquisitions, research, and collection planning. Previously, she held positions at Hauser & Wirth, Sotheby’s, and Deutsche Bank’s art collection. Alongside her advisory work, she lectures at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and Kingston University, and contributes to curatorial and institutional projects worldwide that bridge the art market and cross-cultural dialogue.
Selection Committee
Founder & Director, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Touria El Glaoui
Born and raised in Morocco, Touria founded 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in 2013, later expanding it to New York and Marrakech. Recognised as one of the 50 most powerful women in Africa by Jeune Afrique (2015, 2018, 2019), she has played a key role in championing contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora on the global stage.
Director, Bonnefantenmuseum
Stijn Huijts
Stijn Huijts is the CEO and Artistic Director of the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht. Before joining in 2012, he directed SCHUNCK* in Heerlen and the Stedelijk Museum Het Domein in Sittard. He has organized major exhibitions, including the Dutch Pavilion at the São Paulo Biennial, and recent shows with Isaac Julien, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Carl Cheng, and Mounira Al Solh.
CEO Diptyque & President, Diptyque Foundation
Laurence Semichon
Laurence Semichon began her career at Parfums Givenchy before joining Louis Vuitton in 2011 to launch its fragrance division. She later became Senior Vice President Brand at Diptyque, guiding its evolution into a global lifestyle brand. Appointed CEO in 2024, Laurence Semichon also leads the Diptyque Foundation, supporting art and environmental initiatives that inspire imagination and change.
Founders, Experimenter
Prateek & Priyanka Raja
Prateek and Priyanka Raja are the co-founders of Experimenter, a pioneering gallery with spaces in Kolkata and Mumbai. Through exhibitions and initiatives, they champion experimental practices and critical dialogue across South Asia and beyond. Prateek serves on the Art Basel selection committee and co-founded the International Gallery Alliance, while Priyanka sits on the committees of Art Dubai and The Armory Show. Together, they advocate for diverse voices and boundary-pushing artistic practices.
Curator, Denver Art Museum
Raphael Fonseca
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Raphael Fonseca is Head of Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art at the Denver Art Museum, where he has worked since 2021. He is part of the curatorial team for the 3rd Counterpublic Triennial in St. Louis (2026) and was chief curator of the 14th Mercosul Biennial (2025). His work bridges curating, art history, criticism, and education, and he holds a PhD from UERJ in Rio de Janeiro.
International Jury
Director, Swiss Institute
Stefanie Hessler
Stefanie Hessler (PhD) is Director of the Swiss Institute, New York. Her work focuses on artists and ideas through new commissions, collaborations, and experimental formats. At SI, she co-curated Energies and Spora, which invited artists to transform the institution through “environmental institutional critique,” as well as solo shows by Raven Chacon, Ali Cherri, and Lap-See Lam. She has also curated at the Venice Biennale, Art Basel, and Gropius Bau, and authored Prospecting Ocean (MIT Press).
Multidisciplinary Artist, Curator, & Writer
Christopher K. Ho
Christopher K. Ho is an artist whose work addresses privilege and power. From 2021-25 he was Executive Director of Asia Art Archive, an independent non-profit dedicated to making materials on recent art in Asia accessible. He currently serves on the board of Asia Art Archive and of Powerhouse Arts, and on the Design & Architecture Acquisitions Committee of M+. He is represented by 56 Henry and PHD.
Smell researcher & Artist
Sissel Tolaas
Sissel Tolaas is a Norwegian artist and researcher based in Berlin whose pioneering practice explores the language and communication of smell. For over three decades, she has created projects at the intersection of art and science, with exhibitions at MoMA, Tate Liverpool, the Venice Biennale, and Fondation Cartier, among others. Through her extensive smell archive and collaborations with cultural and commercial institutions worldwide, she challenges perceptions of the olfactory and its role in society.
Art Collector & Founder, Art OnO
JaeMyung Noh
Seoul-based collector and entrepreneur JaeMyung Noh is deeply committed to supporting emerging artists, driven by a sense of responsibility to champion young talents as they grow and evolve. In 2024 he founded Art OnO, a new fair in Seoul dedicated to fostering dialogue between local and international galleries while providing a platform for new voices. Through his collection and initiatives, he plays an active role in strengthening Korea’s art ecosystem and connecting it globally.
Independent Curator & Writer
Fatoş Üstek
Fatoş Üstek is a curator, writer, and cultural leader developing a new institution inspired by her book The Art Institution of Tomorrow (2024). Formerly director of two major UK art institutions, she co-founded FRANK Fair Artist Pay and curated Frieze Sculpture in London. She serves on major juries and advisory boards, including the Turner Prize and Venice Biennale, mentors artists through the Chanel Next Art Prize, and lectures internationally.
All dsm-firmenich employees worldwide cast one collective vote among the ten finalists, which counts as an official Jury vote.
Their thoughts on progress
“Progress is collective. It’s the courage to imagine differently, to open doors for others, and to keep going even when the path isn’t mapped.”
Touria El Glaoui
“Like art itself, progress is rooted in the force of imagination, ever elevating us and guiding us into realms where we have never ventured.”
Stijn Huijts
“For me, progress is not about following trends or moving faster. True progress is about depth rather than speed. It means keeping the dialogue between the eye and the hand alive, allowing creativity to evolve while preserving meaning. In a world that often confuses novelty with innovation, I believe real progress lies in what endures — in what continues to inspire, to move, and to make beauty a living language.”
Laurence Semichon
“Progress to us means a world where empathy and compassion are core values, and where borders and the endless pursuit of them are redundant and where access to water and education isn’t scarce for any strata of society.”
Prateek and Priyanka Raja
“Artists offer different perspectives on held beliefs and established ideas including the linear passage of time and the notion of progress itself. We urgently need their sensitivity and their courageous ideas.”
Stefanie Hessler
"Progress is process towards an end. Complicating this too neat axiom is that that end is plural, and ever changing."
Christopher K. Ho
“Progress is not endless improvement. It is the refusal to remain blind to what is right under our noses. We have engineered a world that prioritizes the visible and neglects the volatile—the intimate, the animal, the atmospheric. To me, progress is learning to smell again. To confront what we excrete, emit, fear, desire, and try to hide. Progress is not comfort. It is exposure. It is dissolving polite distances. It is realizing that the body is never neutral, the air is never empty, and the world is already touching us—whether we acknowledge it or not.”
Sissel Tolaas
“To me, progress is not about speed or expansion. It is about intention — about why and how. Without asking why and how, we may move faster, but never truly move forward. The same applies to art: without questioning why and how, we cannot create anything truly original.”
JaeMyung Noh
“For me, progress signifies a journey toward a better, more advanced, or improved state, be it in knowledge, society, technology, or personal growth. It is the bravery to move beyond what is known, to reimagine the familiar, and to actively shape our present in ways that nurture empathy, encourage dialogue, and build more conscious and connected communities. In art, this becomes palpable: creations that not only mirror the world but transform how we perceive it, sparking change that is both immediate and profound.”
Fatoş Üstek
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