Looking for a cultural break? From the Marais to Pantin through Belleville and Charonne, we’ll be your guide for this month’s selection of art exhibits!

 

 

– Version française –

 

 

Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville Open Studios – Envolée

May 20th-23rd

Each year since 1990, the artists of Belleville open the doors of their workshops to the public! This year’s Open Studios will be held on May 20th-23rd to explore the theme Envolée. The event is always an opportunity for an exciting cultural stroll to meet the creatives who live and work there. During four days, visitors can explore secret hidden courtyards and usually discrete workshops, as the atmosphere of the whole neighborhood becomes more festive. This year’s Open Studios will bring together around 200 artists and collectives. Their works will be visible in about a hundred workshops and galleries of Belleville, a district like no other spread across the 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th arrondissements. — Our article (French)

Friday 20th, Saturday 21st, Sunday 22nd, and Monday 23rd: 2pm-8pm – Free admission

Belleville Neighborhood
75010 / 75011 / 75019 / 75020 Paris
www.ateliers-artistes-belleville.fr

 

 

Les Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville – Les Nouveaux

May 5th-15th

On the eve of their annual art walk, the Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville gallery welcomes the exhibition Les Nouveaux, dedicated to the 15 most recent members of the association: Marie Escarabajal, Fabulla Edition, Marie Fargeot, Papik, Vincent Gouraud, Bruno Krief, Olivier Lacoste, Sylvie Lardet, Wiga Mikulski, Alexis Parmantier, Jelena Petkovic, Piyer, Philippe Rozes, Annelies Danielle Schubert, and Claude Vergé. As part of this event and the upcoming Open Studios, the Paris Lights Up prize will distinguish one of these artists with the publication of a dedicated portrait highligting their work. Last year, painters Getachew Berhanu and Olena Donichenko were named as the first co-recipients.

Thursday to Sunday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission

AAB Gallery
1 rue Francis Picabia, 75020 Paris
www.ateliers-artistes-belleville.fr

 

 

Hugo Avigo, Camille Benarab-Lopez, Côme Clérino, Aurore Le Duc, Lulù Nuti, and Julian Simon – Din♡s

Until June 18th

Featured at Galerie Chloe Salgado, the artworks of Hugo Avigo, Camille Benarab-Lopez, Côme Clérino, Aurore Le Duc, Lulù Nuti, and Julian Simon stage dinosaurs, undisputed figures of pop culture, into new representations. Through paintings, sculptures, prints, or even electric toys, the artists give a different, sometimes ironic, perspective on these beings that preceded us. An experience that is also olfactory: in a culinary tribute to dinosaurs, Hugo Avigo smoked his canvas like a pizza, even adding spices! The exhibition is part of the Paris Gallery Weekend, which will take place from May 19th to 22nd. — Lucie Goguillot

Wednesday to Saturday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission

Galerie Chloe Salgado
61 rue de Saintonge, 75003 Paris
galeriechloesalgado.com

 

 

Caroline Bouyer, Baptiste Deyrail, Sophie Lécuyer, and Jean Mallard – Échappées belles

May 17th-29th

In the heart of the Marais, the traveling gallery Le Serpent Vert brings together four gifted artists around the theme Échappées belles. Their engravings and illustrations take us on a journey to the center of the Earth, where “from the depths of the factory, the mine, the night, the caves, flash the small obstinate lights of human beings”. First with the factories depicted by Saint-Étienne-based artist Baptiste Deyrail, in a tribute to the working-class story of Manufrance and the industrial heritage of the coal mines of the Loire, but also in the chimneys of the coking plants of the North, immortalized by Caroline Bouyer from her engraving workshop in Ménilmontant. As for Jean Mallard, he guides us through underground adventures and “inner worlds” rich in mystery and poetry, which could be haunted by the ethereal figures of Sophie Lécuyer, who describes herself as an “image maker”.

Tuesday to Sunday: 1pm-7pm – Free admission

Galerie Le Serpent Vert
4 rue des Guillemites, 75004 Paris
galerieleserpentvert.com

 

 

Mégane Brauer – Uni·e·s par le feu

Until May 8th

On the banks of Canal de l’Ourcq, the Magasins Généraux welcome the exhibition-residency of Mégane Brauer. In Uni-e-s par le feu, the young artist alludes to “the living conditions of marginalized people, especially those who have migrated”. Centered around solidarity, this immersive project was organized collectively with five young teenagers in exile. The exhibition aims, “thanks to copyright laws and the participation of the audience, to allow them to stay in France”. On nearly 800 square meters, in an environment adorned with “about sixty cypress trees, giving the impression that the place was set ablaze”, the artist will also present a selection of texts, objects, and sound works.

Wednesday to Sunday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission

Magasins Généraux
1 rue de l’Ancien Canal, 93500 Pantin
magasinsgeneraux.com

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Louis-Léopold Boilly – Chroniques parisiennes

Until June 26th

The Musée Cognacq-Jay is dedicating its latest exhibition to the many talents of Louis-Léopold Boilly, “a gifted, prolific and unclassifiable artist” who depicted the lives of Parisians “from one revolution to the dawn of another” – 1789 and 1848. His street scenes, carnival crowds, and other popular jubilations were an opportunity to use his sense of detail and observation and immortalize the capital at a decisive time in its history. The 130 works presented feature an impressive gallery of portraits, between humor and realism, a specialty of the painter who lived and worked by the Grands Boulevards. The exhibit Chroniques parisiennes also includes more intimate but equally striking compositions, such as Deux jeunes femmes s’embrassant (1790-1794), considered “one of the first lesbian kisses” depicted in painting. Several of the artworks can be seen for the very first time in France. — Our article (French)

Tuesday to Sunday: 10am-6pm – €8/€6/€0

Musée Cognacq-Jay
8 rue Elzévir, 75003 Paris
www.museecognacqjay.paris.fr

 

 

Axel Coutaz – Vois, un mets sage se crée…

Until May 11th

“The paintings of Axel Coutaz make the farce and irony of our existences manifest. Through his pictorial practice, the artist tries to dispel some of the myths and codes that weave society. He draws from art history and current events to shape what we might identify: history is therefore created, but elusive. The artist’s approach requires that the painting be established on a liminal space, that separates two opposing meanings. The image is thus suspended between order and chaos, destruction and regeneration, the here and the beyond, the real and the unreal. Outside the normal boundaries of life and society, Axel Coutaz aims to represent human life as a potential event, a simulacrum that overrides any other certainty.” — Lina Kim

Monday to Friday: 11am-7pm – Free admission

La Maison Juste
4 impasse Charles Petit, 75011 Paris
instagram.com/galerie_lamaisonjuste

 

 

Sanna Kannisto – Research on wonder

Until June 11th

“Galerie la Ferronnerie is pleased to present recent photographs by Sanna Kannisto with the exhibition Research on wonder, marking twenty years of work alongside the internationally exhibited Finnish photographer. Sanna Kannisto approaches photography as an objective document, while retaining a deep desire to express a personal narrative. Sanna Kannisto’s project is related to a subject that has attracted a lot of interest in recent years in the field of visual arts, the territory between art and science. In various ways, her project also refers to the history of scientific visualization. Her images also incorporate a sense of humor and absurdity, a nod to surrealism and structuralism, to the relationship between avant-garde and anthropology.”

Tuesday to Friday: 2pm-7pm – Saturday: 1pm-7pm – Free admission

Galerie La Ferronnerie
40 rue de la Folie-Méricourt, 75011 Paris
www.galerielaferronnerie.fr

 

 

Jessica Lisse – Câlins

May 5th to June 13th

“Câlins (Cuddles) is a suspended moment, a time for a sweetness and intimacy that seems to last forever. It is when two beings embrace in an instant that belongs only to them. Jessica Lisse has skillfully transcribed these moments with her very personal color palette. With soft and warm tones, a precise work on acrylic, the artist draws fragments of hugs as if taken on the spot. The characters are never represented in their entirety, they are anonymous, timeless and universal. Yet we recognize them, for they could be us. We identify ourselves and become attached to the details of a drape, a hair, a hand… Sensitive and delicate, this exhibition brings us (back) into a not so distant world where tenderness was a habit.”

Monday to Saturday: 11am-7pm – Free admission

Slow Galerie
5 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris
www.slowgalerie.com

 

 

Néan, Onie Jackson, and Stéphane Parain – Group Show

May 13th to June 11th

“This collective exhibition by Néan, Onie Jackson, and Stéphane Parain at Atelier Nanoh is an opportunity to address the themes of time, of the human condition. The artists make the walls of the gallery come alive, using different techniques to showcase their vision of the creative process. They invite us to an immersive journey in order to question our relationship to matter and space, and to evoke art history through singular visions and contemporary practices.”

Tuesday to Saturday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission

Atelier Nanoh
22 rue Jules Vallès, 75011 Paris
www.nanoh.art

 

 

Karolina Orzełek – Midsummer

May 19th to June 19th

After the personal exhibition Lull after the storm last year, and the group show Endless Summer in 2020, painter Karolina Orzełek is back to Galerie Sabine Bayasli with a new solo project, starting May 19th. Originally from Bielsko-Biała in Poland and now a Parisian, the artist was awarded the 2020 Sisley – Beaux Arts de Paris prize for young creatives. Nostalgia for a chimeric elsewhere, deserted yet bewitching beaches, plants that seem to adapt to their environment like chameleons: a change of scenery is guaranteed through Karolina Orzełek’s oils on panels. Midsummer is a new invitation to push the door of a mysterious country in which colors and lights no longer obey the same rules.

Tuesday to Saturday: 12pm-7pm – Free admission

Galerie Sabine Bayasli
99 rue du Temple, 75003 Paris
galeriesabinebayasli.com

 

 

María Peña Coto – Hybrid Identities: when home is no longer a place

Until May 8th

“This exhibition is an ode to a generation of nomadic, traveling, expatriate, and migrant women. To their ability to assume diverse identities and transform them into a hybrid identity; into the plural vision of reality our society needs to face tomorrow’s challenges. This multidisciplinary and immersive project by Spanish artist María Peña Coto also includes other international artists, with events and performances planned throughout the exhibition.”

Tuesday to Sunday: 2pm-8pm – Free admission

Le Génie de la Bastille
126 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris
www.legeniedelabastille.com

 

 

Laetitia Tura – Desmemoria

Until July 2nd

From the 1939 Retirada of the Spanish Republicans to today’s refugees, crossing the shores of the Mediterranean, photographer and film director Laetitia Tura questions the consequences of exile, of the “confiscation of memory”. The exhibition Desmemoria begins with the story of the artist’s family: her own grandfather, Juan, had to leave his native Catalonia for France and thus escape the regime of the dictator Franco. Behind the Pyrenean border, which remained impossible to cross for such a long time, Laetitia Tura could only learn about Spain through canned squid. “What is transmitted through silence?”, asks the photographer, who documents the individual and societal consequences of these exiles, these interruptions. — Our article (French)

Tuesday to Saturday: 2pm-6pm (7pm on Thursdays) – Free admission

Pavillon Carré de Baudouin
121 Rue de Ménilmontant, 75020 Paris
www.pavilloncarredebaudouin.fr

 

 

Embrace the Light

Until May 28th

“For the inaugural exhibition of its new address, Maëlle Gallery invites the artists Minia Biabiany, Mirtho Linguet, Tabita Rézaire, Ernest Breleur, Linda Lopez, Jérémie Paul, Emmanuel Riviere and Floryan Varennes to “form a circle” around the gallery’s founder. Embrace the Light is a highly symbolic exhibition that appears as a necessary ritual to welcome and heal the place. Olivia Maëlle Breleur introduces her new space with a “choral exhibition”, fundamentally humanistic, intimate yet ostensible. It is a cry from the heart, an intuition, an act of benevolence. The Caribbean woman, the active mother, the passionate gallery owner, shares her states to speak to the living.” — Nina Sales

Tuesday to Saturday: 10h-18h – Free admission

Maëlle Galerie
29 rue de la Commune de Paris, 93230 Romainville
www.maellegalerie.com

 

 

Drawing Now Art Fair

May 19th-22nd

“The 15th Drawing Now Art Fair, the first contemporary art fair dedicated to drawing in Europe, will take place this month at Carreau du Temple. For four days, 72 international galleries will showcase the diversity of drawing, today and across the last fifty years. The exhibition Hyperdrawing will present pieces from the Frac Picardie collections alongside works and performances by young artists. For this 15th anniversary, drawing will be revealed in all its forms, including several generations, demonstrating a diversity of techniques and approaches, with a strong presence of reinvented watercolor. Performances and events will prove an opportunity further explore this medium and its possibilities.”

Thursday to Sunday: 11am-8pm (until 7pm on Sunday) – €16/€9/€6/€0

Drawing Now Art Fair 2022
4 rue Eugène Spuller, 75003 Paris
www.drawingnowartfair.com

 

 

La vie HLM

Until June 30th

“La vie HLM. Aubervilliers, 1950-2000 is an exhibition presented in situ, in the Grosperrin building of the Émile-Dubois housing estate, commonly called “les 800” since their construction in 1957, in the immediate vicinity of the Fort of Aubervilliers. The exhibition offers an immersive experience in the daily life and the paths of four families who lived in the housing estate from the 1950s to the 2000s, through the reconstruction of all or part of their homes. During the two different visits that can be experienced, guides tell the history of Aubervilliers and contemporary France seen from working-class neighborhoods.”

Tuesday: 9:30am-5:15pm – Wednesday: 9:30am-4:15pm – Thursday: 9am-3:30pm – Friday: 9:30am-5:15pm – Saturday: 9:30am-5:30pm – €8/€6/€3/€0

Barre Grosperrin
8 allée Charles Grosperrin, 93300 Aubervilliers
www.laviehlm-expo.com

 

 

Tignous Forever

Until May 21st

“He was drawing, drawing. All the time. Everywhere. Drawings for the press. Comic strips. Drawings to tell the people and the world as they are. Drawings to dream. Drawings to make you think. Drawings to laugh together. Drawings for and with his children. He drew big-nosed men and pandas. Sketches, caricatures. Ah, he filled spiral notebooks, moleskin notebooks, school notebooks, hundreds of them, and also large kraft papers and small sticky papers. He drew all the time. He made watercolors too, and sometimes he used the wrong glass, drinking the one he had used for the brush. So, Tignous at the art center that now bears his name, it’s like Tignous in his studio or at home. As a family. There is everything to see. We walk around. We wander. We stick our nose on the beautiful drawing. We savor. We get surprised. We laugh. We share.” — Chloé Verlhac

Wednesday to Friday: 2pm-6pm (until 9pm on Thursdays) – Saturday: 2pm-7pm – Free admission

Centre Tignous d’art contemporain
116 rue de Paris, 93100 Montreuil
centretignousdartcontemporain.fr

 

 

Portes ouvertes des Ateliers du Père-Lachaise Associés

May 13th-16th

“In the Père-Lachaise neighborhood, this annual art walk pleases as much as it surprises. In this popular district where artists are still numerous, it is an invitation meet them and discover their creations. They are painters, sculptors, engravers, and photographers, men and women, who live or work in the community. 33 artists united with APLA will open their workshops on May 13th-16th. “The Open Studios are an opportunity to showcase our work and meet the public in our creative spaces. It’s a moment that all artists look forward to, for the quality of the exchanges and the bonds that are forged with visitors over time”, explains René Celhay, painter and president of APLA.”

Friday to Monday: 2pm-8pm – Free admission

Père Lachaise Neighorhood
Several workshops and galleries, 75020 Paris
www.apla.fr

 

 

Illustrations (cropped) :
Artwork from the series Le pas de la Manu featured in the exhibit Échappées belles at Galerie Le Serpent Vert
© Baptiste Deyrail – baptistedeyrail.com