The ceramic sculptor joins nine artists in the first edition of Prix MEREA, a new development programme supporting emerging women artists in France

I am Eri Maeda, a Japanese ceramic sculptor and photographer based in Paris. My practice centres on hand-built stoneware monster sculptures that transform everyday objects into forms interrogating gender expectations, consumer culture, and the invisible pressures shaping women's lives. This spring, I was selected as one of ten artists for the inaugural Prix MEREA 2026, one of France's most significant new support structures for emerging women artists in the visual arts and craft disciplines.

What is the Prix MEREA?

Founded by Laetitia Bonhomme and Clémence Martin, MEREA is a Paris-based editorial agency supporting women in the arts through media, mentorship, and professional development. The Prix MEREA is a structured multi-month programme combining individual mentorship, workshops, and professional encounters. Three finalists receive a three-week artistic residency at La Maison Odette in Paris.

The 2026 theme is Filigrane: what persists without announcing itself, trace, buried memory, and the long history of women's work existing as exactly that, essential but rarely in plain sight.

My mentor within the programme is Shourouk Rhaiem. I am spending this spring and summer developing new work in response to Filigrane, a theme that sits close to the core of what I make and why.

More will follow.

More about me:
Eri Maeda Instagram
“I Forgot What I was Saying” by Eri Maeda Substack
Eri Maeda Website

More about MEREA:
MEREA Instagram
MEREA Website