NEW YORK, NY.- Paris based galleries Galerie 1900-2000 and Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois open a joint space at 1018 Madison Avenue in New York.

David Fleiss along with his partner Sylvain Rouillon, and Georges-Philippe Vallois, Nathalie Vallois, and their partner Marianne Le Métayer, are pleased to announce the opening of their New York gallery space. Together, these longtime friends bring more than 40 years of knowledge and experience in important 20th century French and International avant-garde movements such as DADA, Surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, and Photorealism.

Located in the historically renowned building at 1018 Madison Avenue, the galleries will occupy the 5th and 6th floors and will be operated by Natalia Sacasa, Senior Director, and Cassie Legg, Junior Director.

The galleries are currently open to the public from Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, with installations of artworks that demonstrate the range of artists that we are engaged with. The first exhibitions, Air de New York and Upcycling, will open on May 12, 2023, concurrent with the TEFAF New York art fair. More information about the gallery and its programming can be found at www.fleiss-vallois.com and on instagram at @fleissvallois.

David Fleiss remarks, “New York was an important city for artists like Duchamp and Picabia, whose works we show. They often spent time in NYC and even lived here; during WWII, it was the home of André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, whose estate is represented by us. We have enjoyed long relationships with collectors in New York, many of whom are traveling less these days, so we know there is an audience of connoisseurs with an appetite for our program. The relationships we and our artists have with the city were motivations for us to open a space here. Our first show will be titled Air de New York, a pun on Duchampʼs 1919 work Air de Paris. The show will be a two artist presentation of Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, each represented with works from the Dada period and later.”

“Appropriation and reuse are central to the philosophy of the Nouveaux Réalistes,” says Georges-Phillipe Vallois, “the term upcycling, title of our first show, did not exist when they were working, but they would have loved it! It means to elevate a product to a higher value than the original- and that is exactly what artists such as Jacques Villeglé and Raymond Hains did. Niki de Saint Phalle, who is more known for her exuberant figurative work, also appropriated household items and things she found in the street to make assemblage works- early in her life, and Tinguely even had a ‘junk period.’"

Vallois continues, "Works by the Nouveau Réalistes often included images and symbols of capitalism and would frequently appropriate its representations. This methodology aligned their group with the American Pop Art movement; however, ideologically they have more in common with DADA. The artists included in Upcycling all have works in major museum collections in the United States such as the MoMA and the Guggenheim. These individuals have been at the core of our program since the inception of the gallery in 1990, so it was an obvious choice to start with them for our first show in New York!”

Specializing in Dada, Surrealism, and other 20th century avant-gardes, David Fleiss has been uniquely involved in the markets of some of the most important artists from the 20th and 21st centuries. Fleiss’s father, Marcel Fleiss, encouraged by his friend Man Ray, opened his first gallery in 1972– the Galerie des Quatre Mouvements. In 1981 he relaunched his business as Galerie 1900-2000, and expanded the exhibition program to include other international artists and avant-garde movements. Over the years the gallery has been a platform for such movements as Lettrism and Fluxus, as well as contemporary artists such as Pol Bury, Bill Copley, Al Hansen, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Notably, the last exhibition Keith Haring made before he died took place at Galerie 1900-2000. In recent years the gallery has organized shows and booth presentations that make associations between contemporary artists such as Laurent Grasso, Sylvie Fleury, Cindy Sherman, Joseph Kosuth, Harold Ancart or Hans-Peter Feldman with works by artists of the 20th century that the gallery has in inventory.
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For over 30 years, Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois has implemented a unique and rigorous program of internationally renowned artists by bringing together contemporary art and historical French movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The gallery is known for orchestrating important historical exhibitions by its artists as well as its commitment to scholarship through its publication program. The principals of the gallery have enjoyed first hand relationships with artists such as César, Arman, and Jacques Villeglé who passed away in 2022. The gallery now represents the estate of Villeglé, along with those of Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle.

The gallery has also organized the first solo shows in Paris of Californian artists such as Paul McCarthy (1994), Richard Jackson (2002), Martin Kersels (1999). More recently, the gallery has widened its horizon to American Photorealism and presented surveys of John DeAndrea and Robert Cottingham’s work. International artists such as Henrique Oliveira (Brazil), Alain Bublex (France), Tomi Ungerer (France) or Zhenya Machneva (Russia), are represented and regularly exhibited by the gallery.