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

 

 

– Version française –

 

 

Isabelle Abiven & Georges Franco – Regards sur la Commune

May 11th-27th

“Isabelle Abiven is self-taught. She received her training in evening classes, and in those of Frédéric Bouhon, a brilliant teacher of live models and the former president of the Ateliers de Ménilmontant, or by experimenting with media, until she discovered dry pastel, which lets matters and colors express themselves. For these portraits, more than 100 photographs, most of them judicial, were the source of her drawings. The tones are simple: red, light blue, gray, and brown make up her palette. The framing tightens on the faces, to capture their expressions, trying to imagine what they are thinking. Obviously, she wanted to know more about these women who were actors of history, of the Paris Commune… Her meetings with editor Gérald Dittmar, and the conception of the book Portraits de communardes, allowed her to know them even better: women who opened the way to the following struggles, also thanks to librarian Lila Vautel, who wrote their biographies, further revealing their history.”

Monday to Friday: 8:30am-5pm (until 7:30pm on Thursdays) – Saturday: 8:30am-12:30pm – Free admission

Mairie du 20e arrondissement
Place Gambetta, 75020 Paris

 

 

Nadia Belerique, Camille Brée, Éléonore Cheneau, Joanna Piotrowska, Leslie Thornton, et Céline Vaché-Olivieri – L’Irrésolue

Until June 25th

A stone’s throw from Buttes-Chaumont (19th arrondissement), the Fonds régional d’art contemporain presents the exhibition L’Irrésolue (The Irresolute), bringing together works by Nadia Belerique, Camille Brée, Éléonore Cheneau, Joanna Piotrowska, Leslie Thornton, and Céline Vaché-Olivieri. The works of the six artists are spread out over the 600 square meters and the half-dozen rooms of the Plateau, a space created in 2002 to highlight contemporary creation. Through “a title deliberately irresolute itself”, says the curator of the exhibition Anne-Lou Vicente, this creative mosaic combining photography, film, painting, sculpture, installation, and intervention in situ, becomes “an intermediate space, in suspense, floating”, where “the visible and the invisible, what appears on the surface and what can be hidden inside” coexist. — Our article (French)

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

FRAC Île-de-France – Le Plateau
22 rue des Alouettes, 75019 Paris
www.fraciledefrance.com

 

 

David Bruce & Simon Poter – Jumpincolors

Until June 30th

“Jumpincolors is the new event proposed by Hatchikian Gallery and Quai 36, following on from their artistic partnership. This spring will be punctuated by pulsating colors with a duo show by David Bruce and Simon Poter, designed by curators Audrey Hatchikian and Julie Frydman. The cross-over between an art gallery and an urban art production company offers an original opportunity to appreciate the interferences between mural practice and pictorial research in the works of two artists who play with bursts of color and stylized forms. Inspired by the codes and imaginary of urban playgrounds, David Bruce and Simon Poter deploy a resolutely sunny and carefree acid pop visual language, carrying a playful utopia that wards off the existential tragedy.”

Tuesday to Saturday: 10am-6pm – Free admission

Quai 36
43 rue de la Commune de Paris, 93230 Romainville
quai36.com

 

 

Odonchimeg Davaadorj – In Between

Until June 3rd

If you’re around République, don’t hesitate to pay a visit to the gallery Backslash to discover the dreamlike and symbolic worlds born from the imagination of the artist Odonchimeg Davaadorj. Alongside her mysterious portraits and organic paintings, the exhibition features recent series of “small figurines sculpted in soap. The ephemeral nature of the material, which dissolves in water, adds a touching character to these unexpected and endearing individuals. Soap, often represented in vanitas art, addresses the notion of the fragility of human life”. With In Between, on view throughout the month of May, the Mongolian-born artist, now Parisian, signs her third solo exhibition at Backslash.

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

Backslash
29 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, 75003 Paris
www.backslashgallery.com

 

 

Natali Fortier & Benoît Jacques – Drawings – Etchings

May 16th-28th

“The author of about fifty books for children, Natali Fortier has also published in the press and participated in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad. Her intense graphic creation is prolonged by a dense activity as a sculptor, inspired by the creatures of her books which she animates during various interventions and festivals. […] Born in Brussels, Benoit Jacques is first and foremost an illustrator. He drew for ten years in London in the graphic studio Pentagram Design, then as a freelance illustrator for the international press. He has been living and working near Fontainebleau since 1991 and has since devoted himself entirely to the self-publishing of numerous books featuring his drawings.”

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

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

 

 

Léa Habourdin, Almudena Romera, Laure Winants, Ilanit Illouz, and Tamaki Yoshida – Les alchimistes du sensible

Until May 6th

“Fisheye Gallery brings together Léa Habourdin, Almudena Romera, Laure Winants, Ilanit Illouz and Tamaki Yoshia, five women photographers and visual artists driven by a common concern: the future of the environment. Rich in their respective backgrounds, with their own sensitivities, their views intersect and offer a variation on the same theme, harmonious in the complementarities they suggests. As true alchemists of reality, the raw material, devoid of any human transformation, is at the heart of their unique works, most of which remain unpublished. Salt, plants, coal or fragments of erosion… Between scientific and artistic approaches, natural agents alternatively show what the urban eye no longer perceives.”

Wednesday to Friday: 2pm-7pm – Saturday: 11:30am-6pm – Free admission

Fisheye Gallery
2 rue de l’hôpital Saint-Louis, 75010 Paris
www.fisheyegallery.fr

 

 

Zsuzsanna Korodi, Sébastien Preschoux, and Tomislav Topic – Abstract Experience

Until May 6th

“More than sixty years after the landmark exhibition The Responsive Eye at MoMA, questioning how the eye responds to experiments with foundational elements of art such as color, pattern, and light in time and space, Danysz Gallery brings together three artists. This reunion intends to show how the new generation of geometric abstraction is increasingly present in the artistic landscape. From the colorful installations of Tomislav Topic (Germany, 1985) to the perfect lines of Sébastien Preschoux (France, 1974) and the subtle play of movement generated by Zsuzsanna Korodi (Hungary, 1984), these artists share a will to create a strong experience by bringing the viewer to observe, to analyze, even to move around their works.”

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

Danysz
78 rue Amelot, 75011 Paris
danyszgallery.com

 

 

Zanele Muholi – Retrospective

Until May 21st

“Zanele Muholi, who defines themself as a “visual activist”, uses the camera as a tool to confront and repair injustice. During the 1990s, South Africa underwent significant social and political change. Democracy was established in 1994 with the abolition of apartheid; this was followed by a new constitution in 1996, the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. Despite this progress, the Black LGBTQIA+ community remains the target of violence and prejudice to this day. Bringing to light the uniqueness and diversity of the individuals they picture, Muholi emphasizes their courage and dignity in the face of intolerance and discrimination. These photographs encourage viewers to address their own misconceptions. Together they create a new lexicon of positive imagery for under- and misrepresented communities, promoting mutual understanding and respect.”

Wednesday to Friday: 11am-8pm (until 10pm on Thursdays) – Saturday & Sunday: 10am-8pm – €11/€7

Maison européenne de la photographie
5/7 Rue de Fourcy, 75004 Paris
mep-fr.org

 

 

Lucile Piketty – Du jour ou de la nuit

Until June 3rd

“Lucile Piketty’s practice is transdisciplinary, from painting to engraving in all its forms (wood, metal, lithography…) through drawing, the first step of all her research. She is inspired by art history, painting, cinema, but also by comics, popular prints, as well as panoramic wallpapers … Lucile Piketty is interested in the border between the familiar and the strange, the everyday and the unreal. Time, waiting, and the cycles of life are her favorite themes. The question of the representation of the female figure in art history also holds a central place in her work, and this reflection led her to essentially stage her intimate circle, her mother, her sisters, her friends, by trying to treating them as models: not passive, but well incarnated, with personalities and feelings emerging beyond the reasoned representation of the body.”

Tuesday to Saturday: 1pm-6pm – Free admission

H Gallery
39 rue Chapon, 75003 Paris
www.h-gallery.fr

 

 

À la lumière de l’estampe

May 18th-28th

“On the occasion of the Fête de l’estampe, the Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville invite you to discover this art through a collective exhibition of ten artists, workshops, as well as a conference. A field of exploration of lights, printmaking is almost a rite of passage renewed with each proof, each print… Artists favoring this technique print the state of their universe; they reveal worlds when the image, freed from its reserve, appears, printed on a sheet of paper, like the discovery of an ultimate secret. The exhibition brings together artists Danielle Choukroun, Sergio Corrieri, Véronique Desmasures, Daniel Duhamel Arrapel, Juli Estrada also known as Creabilia, Bruno Krief, Tilda Lovi, Annie Rosès, Richard S., and Annelies Danielle Schubert.”

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

Galerie des AAB
1 Rue Francis Picabia, 75020 Paris
www.ateliers-artistes-belleville.fr

 

 

Festival Utopi·e

May 24th-28th

“After the event’s launch in May 2022, the Magasins Généraux are pleased to host the second edition of Utopi-e, a new genre of art award dedicated to LGBTQIA+ artists, from May 24th to 28th. This week-long exhibition and festival aims to encourage and raise the visibility of the queer art scene, and to appeal to an approach to art that is attentive to differences, engaged, diverse and inclusive. The 2023 event brings together the ten artists Maïc Baxane, Nelson Bourrec Carter, Aëla Maï Cabel, Audrey Couppé de Kermadec, Naelle Dariya, Sido Lansari, Elijah Ndoumbe, No Anger, Jordan Roger, and Kianuë Tran Kiêu.”

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

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

 

 

Circulation(s) – European Young Photography Festival

Until June 4th

“Since 2011, Circulation(s) has been questioning territories and current issues seen through the eyes of emerging European photographers. Featured twenty-seven artists of fourteen different nationalities, it offers once more an open artistic vision, rich in contrasts and trends, reflecting contemporary concerns. The festival portrays a new generation of photographers who take on the images as well as the major themes of their time, using a multitude of styles, ranging from documentary photography to archival images, as well as staging and fiction. Spread over more than 2 000 square meters of exhibition space, Circulation(s) aims to be both demanding and popular in order to showcase a focus on our time.”

Wednesday to Sunday: 2pm-7pm – €6/€4/€3

Centquatre
5 rue Curial, 75019 Paris
www.festival-circulations.com

 

 

Les Ateliers du Père Lachaise Associés – Open Studios 2023

May 13th-15th

“The APLA (Ateliers du Père Lachaise Associés) takes visitors on a journey rich in creation, culture, and discovery of unusual places between the Père Lachaise cemetery and the Sarah Bernhardt square. 38 artists specializing in sculpture, painting, engraving, photography and mixed media will unveil their works during three days in workshops or apartments, exceptionally open on this occasion. The artists will be pleased to present their artistic techniques or talk about their sources of inspiration. Some APLA artists open their studios to other artists who do not have a venue to exhibit or do not live in the neighborhood. Through this approach, artworks and techniques are in perfect osmosis.”

Saturday 13th, Sunday 14th, and Monday 15th of May: 2pm-8pm – Free admission

Père Lachaise neighborhood
75020 Paris
www.apla.fr

 

 

Festival Planète Périphérique

Until May 7th

“Since March 13, 2023, the building I located at 19 rue Henri Duvernois (20th arrondissement), has been the scene of an exceptional event designed to celebrate a new chapter in the history of the Python-Duvernois neighborhood: the Planète Périphérique festival. This RIVP site, at the heart of the local major urban renewal plan, will be demolished in the summer to make way for new housing and a 3-hectare sports and landscaped park. The RAS Collective has mobilized some sixty international artists of all styles to make this event a unique moment, open and accessible to all. In parallel, along with local associations, it features a program of animations and events during the whole festival: Môm’ Ganne, la fabrique documentaire, La Lucarne, Les Réglisses, as well as the neighborhood youth educators.”

Thursday & Friday: 3pm-7pm – Saturday & Sunday: 12pm-7pm – Free admission

19 rue Henri Duvernois
75020 Paris
www.rivp.fr

 

 

 

Illustrations (cropped):
Exhibit view – In Between at Backslash
© Odonchimeg Davaadorj – Backslash