2026 marks 30 years since the establishment of the Prince Claus Fund—three decades of standing alongside artists and cultural practitioners working where culture and freedom of expression are under pressure.
Cover image courtesy of 2024 Seed Awardee Gabriel Pinto.
We are proud to kick off our anniversary celebrations at TEFAF Maastricht 2026 between 14-19 March with the presentation of powerful work by Prince Claus Award Recipient Ibrahim Mahama, one of the most influential artists of his generation.
If you happen to be at TEFAF Maastricht 2026, visit our booth and to encounter Mahama’s new work firsthand: titled "Sénégal Fast Food", it continues the artist's long-standing engagement with material histories, labour, and processes of extraction and abandonment. Central to the work is the extension of the life of objects once embedded in systems of commodity production.
Mahama’s work invites us to reinterpret social and economic histories beyond conventional boundaries, reflecting the kind of free artistic expression the Fund strives to safeguard: one that centres autonomy, experimentation, and diverse voices.
Alongside this presentation, we will also host a curated library featuring landmark publications by Irma Boom, a renown visionary in book design whose collaboration with the Fund goes back to our founding days.
Marking our 30-year anniversary, we look ahead—continuing to invest in future talent and artists at crucial stages in their careers, those who will shape the cultural landscape of our time. We support artists long before the art market or global audiences take notice, offering early recognition and sustained encouragement when it matters most.
Our commitment is grounded in trust and long-term relationships with our community, from emerging talents finding their voice to established creators whose work resonates across borders and beyond art market trends. By championing artistic freedom, collective imagination, and exchange, the Fund connects you to the vibrant cultural pulse of its global community.
Because culture is a force. For open and free societies.
About Ibrahim Mahama
Ibrahim Mahama (b. 1987, Tamale, Ghana), 2020 Prince Claus Fund Awardee and International Advisory Board member, embodies the changemakers the Fund supports. Based between Accra and Tamale, his practice uses jute sacks, wood, paper, and everyday objects to reveal hidden narratives of labour, migration, and global exchange.
Founder of the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Red Clay, and Nkrumah Volini, Mahama has shaped Ghana’s contemporary art scene. Named ArtReview’s most influential artist in 2025, his work has been shown internationally and is held in major collections. His awards include the Sam Gilliam Award (2024) and the Art Basel Gold Award (2025), and the Republic of Ghana granted him a diplomatic passport in recognition of his cultural impact.
About Irma Boom
Irma Boom is a bookmaker based in Amsterdam and the designer of more than 500 books, known for her radical, experimental approach that challenges the conventions of the book as both object and medium. Since 1992, she has served as Senior Critic at Yale University and lectures internationally. Boom’s work is held in major collections, including MoMA New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Vatican Library, and Centre Pompidou, with her complete oeuvre preserved at the University of Amsterdam. She has received the Gutenberg Prize, the Johannes Vermeer Award, and an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art, London.
A longstanding partner of the Prince Claus Fund, Boom has shaped the Fund’s visual identity through her book designs and the creation of its iconic logo.
We wish to thank TEFAF, Irma Boom, Stabilo International, and Maison Ruinart for their partnership making the Fund’s presence at TEFAF possible.
