Paris, France — It is a highly cosmopolitan affair, the great modern and contemporary art fair that is Art Paris, which is being played out this year until April 12th under the glass cupola of the magnificent Grand Palais between the Seine and the Champs-Elysées. Held for the 28th time this year, the show brings together some 165 galleries from 20 countries with about 60% of the exhibitors coming from France and 40% from the international art scene and this year the fair welcomes a nice group of galleries participating for the first time. Visitors can explore the show by wandering around or following two themed visits: Babel – Art and Language in France, curated by Loïc Le Gall, focusing on the French scene, while the second, Reparation, curated by Alexia Fabre, brings an international perspective to the fair. Prizes, events, single artist exhibitions and performances round out the agenda. 

Art Paris also hosted the FRENCH DESIGN 100 award ceremony. These unique distinctions reward the 100 interior design and design projects that have contributed to developing the reputation and influence of French creativity outside the country’s borders. It is sponsored by France’s Ministry of Culture. The Ville de Paris( City of Paris) also presented a selection of archives from its rich collections which are rarely shown to the public. The Ville de Paris’ art collection comprises almost 23,400 works dating from the end of the 19th century to the present day. Every year, new works are added to the collection as part of the municipality’s actions in support of artists. 

Highlights of this year’s show included 25 monographic exhibitions. Especially noteworthy was the show devoted to the colorful eye-catching works of the Icelandic Pop artist Errò put on by the Koren Gallery.  Waddington Custot presented memorable paintings from, among others, Edouard Vuillard and Serge Poliakoff. The gallery, already present in London and Dubai, opened its Parisian gallery on April 9th with an exhibition devoted to the Nabis. Meanwhile the Spaceless Gallery (which as its name implies is a nomadic gallery) presented a dreamy world in a work by the aurèce vettier project featuring the Biblical Seraphim, glowing moons, twinkling stars, nighttime butterflies and a black cat being very black cat-like. The aurèce vettier is an art project founded in 2019 by Paul Mouginot (b. 1990). This alias, formed using an algorithm, is a metaphor for the desire for a collaborative, open and hybrid approach.©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette https://www.artparis.com/en