Art Paris Art Fair 2019 – Between discovery and diversity

From 4 to 7 April 2019, the 21st edition of Art Paris will be held under the majestic dome of the Grand Palais de Paris (France). 

Discovery and diversity are the key words of this must-see spring event in Paris, which combines regional exploration of European art from the post-war period to the present day with a cosmopolitan look at emerging world creation..

For its 21st Art Paris edition, with forty-six solo shows (compared to thirty-six in 2018), 150 galleries (compared to 143 in 2018), 44% of new entries, 20 countries represented (including, for the first time, Cameroon, Bulgaria and Peru), the 2019 selection shows a strong move up the range. Favouring a thematic approach and open to all artistic media, Art Paris once again cultivates its difference, that of being an international fair turned towards discovery that focuses on the European stages from the post-war period to the present day while exploring new horizons of international creation whether they come from Asia, Africa, the Middle East or Latin America.

Women artists in the spotlight

Curated by AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, the 2019 edition presents a critical and subjective overview of the work of women artists in France.
25 specific projects by women artists will be selected from amongst the exhibits of participating galleries. This selection is divided into four themes: Abstraction, the Feminist Avant-Garde, Image and Theatricality. AWARE has also been invited to write a critical essay that situates each artist’s work in its historical context.

AWARE – Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions aims to produce, index and distribute information about 20^th century women artists – was co-founded in 2014 by art historian Camille Morineau, who specialises in women artists. She is also the director of exhibitions and collections at the Monnaie de Paris.

Among the list of women artists chosen by AWARE, we note the presence of the Franco-Malagasy artist Malala Andrialavidrazana presented by the Caroline Smulders gallery. Originally from Madagascar, Malala Andrialavidrazana (born in 1971) has lived in Paris since the early 1980s. The artist has made a name for himself through his photographs, which explore the links between personal history and cultural identity, intimacy and universality, and highlight the contrast between the perception of the world by the West and the countries of the South. In her series of Figures works, which she began in 2015, the artist explores the possibilities of collage to question the visual heritage of the colonial era and its impact on our perception of the world. By superimposing fragments of images from different periods such as ethnographic engravings, banknotes, record covers, etc., she tackles the subjects of otherness, cultural mixing or the need to question preconceptions from a “Eurocentric” imagination. It thus proposes a form of decolonization through images, all in allusion and poetry.

An exploration of Latin American art with the “Southern Stars” section

In 2019, Art Paris is setting out to explore Latin American artfrom the 1960s to the present day. Around twenty European, Asian and Latin American galleries are presenting an ensemble of 60 Argentinean, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Cuban, Mexican, Peruvian and Venezuelan artists. In parallel, other projects such as a video programme, installation artworks, the presentation of works by Latin American women artists from the collection of Catherine Petitgas and conferences at the Maison de l’Amérique latine will highlight the creative effervescence that reigns on the continent.

*Southern Stars: An Exploration of Latin American Art is curated by the independent exhibition curator Valentina Locatelli, who is based in Switzerland.

As part of the celebration of Latin America, Art Paris also hosts a selection of works by South American artists from Catherine Petitgas‘ private collection. Entitled “Amazons”, this exhibition brings together women artists from the countries of the Amazon basin, mainly from Brazil (Beatriz Milhazes, Maria Nepomuceno, Rivane Neueunschwander, Lygia Clark, Anna Bella Geiger), Colombia (Liliana Angulo, Beatriz González, Nohemí Pérez), Peru (Sandra Gamarra, Ximena Garrido-Lecca), Venezuela (Lucia Pizzani and Sol Calero) and whose work focuses both on female identity, particularly among ethnic minorities, and on the tropical aesthetics of these regions rich in biodiversity and whose ecology is threatened.

*Catherine Petitgas is a London-based collector and art historian specialising in modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on Latin America.

We invite you to read our article on the Southern Stars section and Catherine Petitgas' collection here

A historical and current journey through the Latin American scenes

Galleries spread throughout the fair’s different sectors invite visitors on a journey of discovery through Latin America’s different scenes, considering them from both a historical and contemporary point of view.

Galería Freijo is focusing on two historical figures from the Mexican scene, abstract sculptor and co-founder of Stridentism Germán Cueto and Felipe Ehrenberg, a leading light in the field of Mexican conceptual art in the 1970s. Numerous galleries are showcasing the work of the proponents of geometric abstraction from the 60s and 70s, including Carlos Cruz-Diez(Venezuela), Ivan Contreras-Brunet (Chilli), Darío Pérez-Flores (Venezuela) and Marino di Teana (Argentina). Women artists are also in the spotlight with solo shows featuring Leonor Fini, a surrealist painter born in Buenos Aires (Weinstein Gallery/Galerie Minsky); Mexican artist Carmen Mariscal, whose work addresses questions of gender and female stereotypes (Ana Mas Project); and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, a Chilean artist who is the subject of a mini-retrospective at the Wooson Gallery featuring her drawings that touch on questions of sex and religion.

The Cuban scene is the subject of a group exhibition at the Xin Dong Cheng Gallery, which brings together six artists from different generations: Manuel Mendive, Raúl Martínez, Adonis Flores, René Francisco Rodríguez, Michel Mirabaland Yunier Hernández Figueroa.

Two galleries Nosco and Galerie Younique are showcasing the young Peruvian scene with emblematic figures such as José Carlos Martinat and José Luis Martinat, two brothers who are famous for their installations that question the past and the present of post-colonial societies. La Balsa Arte (Bogota/Medellin) is presenting a dialogue between the works of three figures from the Colombian scene with drawings (Juan Osorno), paintings (Julian Burgos) and installation art (Luis Fernando Peláez), whereas Galería Solo/Eva Albarran & Christian Bourdais has given over part of its space to Carlos Amorales, a major figure on the Mexican scene who works in different media such as video, installation art, photography and paper.

A particularly well represented African art scene 

For this 2019 edition of Art Paris, several galleries also present artists from African art scenes…

Among them: Galerie Dominique Fiat exhibits the works of Nicola Lo Calzo, Hardy Sy, Rachid Koraïchi (Algeria), Safâa Erruas (Morocco), but also several artists from Benin: Emo de Medeiros, Dominique Zinkpé, Cyprien Tokoudagba ; Galerie ARTCO – presents the works of Marcelo Brodsky, Marion Boehm, Justin Dingwall (South Africa) ; Galerie Capazza will exhibit the works of Francis Limérat (Algeria) ; Galerie MAM – Boris Nzebo, Hervé Yamguen (Cameroon), Ngimbi Luve (Congo), Oumar Ball (Mauritania), Ousmane Niang (Senegal) ; Galeria Filomena Soares – Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola); Galerie Chauvy – Soly Cissé (Senegal); So Art Gallery – Morran Benlahcen (Morocco), Kabbaj Houda; Finally Galerie Claire Gastaud exhibits the works of Jean-Charles Eustache (Guadeloupe), and many others…

With such a complete program Art Paris 2019 is definitely the must-see event of spring in Paris !

ARTSKOP3437 official media partner of Art Paris Art Fair 2019

For more information on the 2019 edition of Art Paris, please consult the following links:  : 

→Art Paris Art Fair highlights women artists from Latin America

→ Official website of Art Paris Art Fair