AN ACT OF RESISTANCE - ART PARIS, SEPTEMBER 2020

Supporting galleries and showcasing their work. This edition of the fair, which can be qualified as an act of resistance, reflects Art Paris’ desire to support and showcase the work accomplished by galleries. According to fair director Guillaume Piens: “It is now more than ever time for galleries to get back to work and meet their collectors. It is just as important for their artists. The advantage of Art Paris is that it is above all a local and regional fair with a large majority of French galleries. 75% of visitors to the fair come from the Paris region or other areas of France”.

For this 22nd edition 112 galleries will be present, including 24 foreign galleries hailing from Korea, Canada, the Ivory Coast and Peru for the most far flung among them, in addition to our European neighbors with galleries from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Italy, Holland, Portugal and Switzerland. The 2020 selection, which counts 36% of first-time participants, is also marked by the arrival of major galleries such as Perrotin, Jeanne Bucher Jaeger and Karsten Greve (who has teamed up with Caroline Smulders for the occasion), along with the fair’s faithful exhibitors that include Nathalie Obadia, Templon, Lahumière and Paris-Beijing.

A prominent place has also been reserved for a young generation of gallerists. Purposely placed at the very heart of the Grand Palais, “Promises” will host 14 young galleries from Abidjan, Brussels, Lima, Lisbon, Sofia, Marseilles and Paris, many of which will be exhibiting at Art Paris for the first time this year. The galleries will explore rarely represented art scenes, from Europe – in particular Bulgaria at Structura Gallery; Africa, with Afikaris, 31 Project, Galerie Véronique Rieffel and Septieme Gallery; Latin America, represented by Galerie Younique and the young French art scene through Double V, Intervalle and Ségolène Brossette. The galleries will each be presenting between one and three emerging artists – and will benefit from a financial sponsorship from the fair.

An overview of the French art scene: Common and Uncommon Stories. To support the French scene, Art Paris asked an independent curator and art critic to turn a subjective, historical and critical eye on a selection of specific projectsby French artists presented by participating galleries. In Common and UncommonStories, Gaël Charbau shares his vision of the French scene with a selectionof nineteen artists, most of whom were born in the 1980s. These artists’ workshighlight narrative notions and tell unique and universal stories. Gaël Charbau hasalso been invited to write a text presenting each artist and their work. As he says:“It seems to me that we can give an insight into our common history by confrontingit with the uncommon history of these artists (Henni Alftan, Léa Belooussovitch,Abdelkader Benchamma, Elsa & Johanna etc) who are, for the most part, still inthe first part of their careers- all the time of course keeping an eye on some of theirelders (Roland Flexner, Sophie Calle, Hervé Télémaque).”

Art Paris

September 10–13, 2020

Grand Palais

3 Avenue de Général Eisenhower

75008 Paris

France

*cover photo by Marc Domage.