Nouveau in Paris: Selected Galleries
With Paris only two hours away from London by train, it has never been easier to visit the world’s most romantic city; whether you have planned a trip to the French capital any time soon or are lucky enough to live there, we have compiled a list of five must visit galleries that are guaranteed to have you falling in love with art.
Suzanne Tarasieve
7 Rue Pastourelle – 75003, Paris
Suzanne Tarasieve is currently showing an exhibition by artist Boris Mikhaïlov comprised of pieces of work from 1989, retouched and reworked by the artist to offer a fresh perspective. Ukrainian born Mikhaïlov faced difficulties in the past due to his photography being considered too political and morally subversive; the photographs featured in the current exhibition were taken on his first trip to the west after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989 in a new climate of freedom, and express the artists wonder with Paris. They now appear coloured in strokes of gold and silver with certain details redrawn.
Some of Suzanne Tarasieve’s represented artists include Neal Fox and Juergen Teller; the former is a London artist whose work often features well known icons and figures decontextualized and juxtaposed in nightmarish and chaotic compositions. Teller is a German born artist currently living in London, guaranteed to provoke thought and controversy through his work which often features full frontal nudity and the human form depicted in all its natural garishness.
Galerie Itinerrance
7 bis rue René Goscinny 75013, Paris
With a focus on street art, Galerie Itinerrance describes itself as part of the urban fabric in full economic and cultural expansion and boasts a formidable list of represented street artists from all over the world.
Notable artists include Shoof, whose work strongly features his traditional Tunisian calligraphy desecrated and reworked; the gallery also represents Spanish artist David de la Mano whose complex humanist street art depicts powerful images of symbolic mass human behaviour.
Zürcher
56, rue Chapon F-75003, Paris
Zürcher is one of Paris’ well established galleries with an exhibition space in New York as well as in Paris’ city centre. The gallery’s current exhibition in New York is entitled Ornamenting Crime, a group show dedicated to playing with ideas of decoration; the exhibition title is derived from Adolf Loos’ seminal essay Ornament and Crime, a work which explores the trivial nature of decorative objects in history.
“Ornamenting Crime is a celebration of the throbbing, pulsating, force that is decoration.”
Past exhibitions include If You’re Accidentally Not Included, Don’t Worry About It, a show featuring pop-art inspired pieces by a variety of American artists including Peter Saul and Regina Bogat that was iterated at both their New York and Paris locations.
Galerie Laurent Godin
5, rue du grenier Saint-Lazare 75003, Paris
Laurent Godin is committed to frequently organizing solo shows by artists who pay particular attention to politics, sociology and culture in their artistic practices, not limited to a specific medium or artistic background. The gallery’s current exhibition is entitled Aires austéres (roughly translated into ‘austere areas’) and guarantees to avoid the chic and commonplace, as is often the case with artist Sven ‘t Jolle. Jolle is one of the gallery’s represented artists, and works primarily through the medium of sculpture.
Also represented by Laurent Godin is performance artist Liz Cohen, whose work contextualises the portrayal of the female form as it is commonly seen in playful and sexualised asymmetry with highly masculine environments and tools. Cohen is also a prize-winning automotive designer.
In collaboration with the French editor Onestar Press, the gallery also develops artist books connected to the exhibitions which are on display.
Jola Sidi Gallery
80 rue Gravilliers 75003, Paris
Created with the aim of supporting contemporary artists, painters, photographers and designers, Jola Sidi is a beautifully renovated exhibition space. The gallery recently played host to Michal Batory, a Polish graphic artist who began his career as a graphic designer primarily making movie posters; entitled Images sans titres (‘untitled Images’), the exhibition featured a collection of works whose clean lines, bright colours and attention grabbing imagery speak for themselves.
The gallery’s current exhibition Tickle the palate is Polish artist Dorota Buczkowskza’s first solo Paris exhibition and develops a narrative between man and his environment. Buczkowska works in different media including drawing, sculpture, installation and video, and is one of Poland’s most notable artists at the moment.
