ArtParis, the spring Modern and Contemporary Art Fair, returns to the Grand Palais from March 31 through April 3, 2011. More than one hundred international stands will feature painting, photography, sculpture, drawing, video and art installations… Photography’s increasing presence in the contemporary art world has made it prevalent in gallery collections.
Here is a brief look at participating French galleries…
The Marion Meyer Contemporary gallery stand, designed by Stéphane Bérard, is a work of art in itself. A majority of the stand will be built on location. In other words, its goal is to drop barriers and raise issues… To animate this humorous and impertinent initiative will be artists including Philippe Bazin, Philippe Fangeaux, Séverine Hubard, Patrick Neu and a surprise guest, Man Ray.
For the Galerie Vieille du Temple, interior architect Philippe Kauffmann was hired to create a dialogue among the works on display while at the same time impressing visitors with the originality of its stand design. Works by Lucien Hervé will hang alongside a new generation of photographers including Sarah Le Guern.
African photography will be highlighted at both the Jean Brolly and André Magnin galleries, exhibiting works by Adama Kouyaté for the former and Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé and Depara for the latter. Adama Kouyaté is a historic Malian photography born in 1928 in Bougouni (Mali). He learned his craft in Bamako in 1947 alongside such photography pioneers as Bakary Doumbia and of course Pierre Garnier, the “white” master of West African photography. Adama Kouyaté worked essentially in the studio, a small space in the back of a “store”, where the photographer and his model met under the heat of two projectors. Seydou Keïta et Malick Sidibé, two well known Malian photographers will be exhibited alongside Jean Depara, a 1950’s photographer from Kinshasa.
Also: Ilan Engel Gallery will present several artists including Emmanuelle Bousquet, Christophe Dugied, Mihai Mangiulea and Olivier Sémon. The Galerie Rabouan Moussion exhibits Katarina Legrady, Mary Sue and the famous Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf. Sollertis presents Roland Fischer. Galerie Olivier Robert exhibits Boogie. Eric Rodrigue, Eric Dereumaux of galerie RX presents Yannick Demmerle. David Lachapelle decorates the walls of the Galerie Enrico Navarra. Galerie Claire Gastaud with works by Nils-Udo. James Casebere at the Galerie Daniel Templon. Lionel Bayol-Thémines at the Galerie Maïa Muller. Granville Gallery presents photographs by Léa Le Bricompte. Alain Turpault and Antoine Schneck are on display at the Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès.
