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ART PARIS 2021
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After being the first art fair in the world to open its doors in September 2020 after lockdown restrictions ended, Art Paris will also be the first art fair to take up residence in the Grand Palais Éphémère on the Champ-de-Mars from 9 to 12 September. Designed by renowned architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, this spectacular temporary structure which is situated in front of the École Militaire and close to the Eiffel Tower, will host events scheduled at the Grand Palais until the building reopens for the Olympic Games in 2024.
Art Paris has established itself as a major Art fair for Modern and Contemporary art. This forthcoming edition will bring together 140 galleries from over twenty countries, displaying art spanning post-war to the contemporary period. Whilst Art Paris is a place for discovery, its distinctive feature is a special emphasis on the European scene combined with the exploration of new horizons of international creative hubs in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Regional and cosmopolitan, the 2021 edition counts 40% of new participants and is marked by the arrival of leading international galleries including Almine Rech, Continua, MASSIMODECARLO, Lelong & co, Kamel Mennour, Perrotin and Thaddaeus Ropac.
Since 2018, Art Paris has consistently supported the French contemporary art scene by inviting curators to lend a subjective, historical, and critical eye and to design a special project highlighting French artists featured at the fair. For 2021, guest curator Hervé Mikaeloff will share his perspective on contemporary French artist with Portraiture and Figuration. A Focus on the French Art Scene, bringing together some twenty artists around the theme of the portrait and the renewal of figurative painting in France. According to Hervé Mikaeloff: “In a “postmedium” era, art is more than ever questioning its relationship to the image. In my focus on the French Art Scene, by choosing the theme of portraiture I am aiming to show the renewal of figurative art. Above and beyond a simple stylistic effect, portraits are a means by which artists can develop a new relationship with the world. They act both as a standard bearer for each person’s differences and an instrument of integration.”
Above: L’incrédulité de St Thomas-(Détail), 2021 Painting, Galerie Provost-Hacker Opposite Page: Anton Kannemeyer, Compelling Backstory, 2020 drawing, 75 x 55cm, Galerie Ernst Hilger
Above: MonaKuhn, ©Captured Evidence, 2007 Photography 76 x 76 x 5cm, Galerie XII Opposite Page: Marcella Barceló, Loose Ends, 2019 Painting, Galerie Anne de Villepoix
Georgina Maxim, Ma mere II - (Detail), 2020, Mixed media, textile 125 x 160cm, 31 Project Cameron Platter, Please Help, 2020 Drawing, 180 x 130cm, Galerie Ernst Hilger
Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Dora Maar n°5, cropped, 1939, Galerie Jean-Francois Cazeau
Le restaurant de sushis, 2020, huile sur toile, 130 x 162 cm, Crédit photo Suzan Brun, courtesy of Gallery Paris-Beijing Scott Anderson, Moldy Lemon, 2017 Painting, Galerie Richard
Rebecca Brodskis, Nikita, 100x80cm, oil on linen, 2019, Septieme Gallery
Senzeni Marasela, Waiting for Gebane, 2015 Aquarelle sur papier, 60 x 42cm, Galerie Eric Dupont
This 2021 edition will feature 27 solo shows. These monographic exhibitions spread throughout the fair allow visitors to discover or rediscover the work of modern and contemporary artists in depth. Amongst the highlights, Helene Bailly Gallery (Paris) is presenting a Pablo Picasso solo show with an ensemble of works - paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics - from between 1919 and 1969. The Galerie Italienne is showing a rare selection of Polaroids and black and white photos by Andy Warhol. Amongst the solo shows by foreign artists, visitors could discover the textile installations by Zimbabwean artist Georgina Maxim, the naïve and narrative landscapes of American artist Jessie Homer French are on view at MASSIMODICARLO, the post-minimalist objects of German artist Gerold Miller are revisiting the heritage of geometric abstraction at Un-Spaced Gallery and the colourful and gestural abstract paintings of Iranian-born artist Mojé Assefjah at Galerie Tanit.
“Promises”, the sector that focuses on young galleries created less than six years ago, provides a forward-looking analysis of cuttingedge contemporary art, whether it hails from Guatemala with La Galería Rebelde, Africa on the stands of 31 Project and Véronique Rieffel, China with Galerie Marguo, or Europe with two galleries from Marseille (France), Double V Gallery and Le Cabinet d’Ulysse, and Parisian exhibitors Hors-Cadre, Pauline Pavec and Septieme Gallery. Participating galleries can present up to three artists and Art Paris finances 45% of the exhibitor costs.
The 2021 edition goes hand in hand with an exceptional period of cultural and artistic renaissance in the City of Light, as illustrated by the opening of foreign galleries and new venues, the renovation of existing cultural institutions and the inauguration of new ones. Paris is asserting its role as a major hub for contemporary art in Europe and this ongoing transformation of the Parisian art scene is reflected in the many activities on offer as part of the VIP programme, which is reserved for collectors and art professionals.
