PARIS.- Art Paris Art Fair, the leading fair for modern and contemporary art in the spring is in a class of its own with a selection of 143 galleries from 22 countries making it both global and local as well as international and regional.
Alongside major international galleries like Daniel Templon, Nathalie Obadia, Gana Art, Sundaram Tagore and Flowers, the fair focuses on exploring the regions of Europe and in particular the cities that are home to uncommon art scenes.
Barcelona
Miquel Alzueta is specialised in contemporary art and modern design. Located in a large space in a former factory in Barcelona, the gallery brings to Art Paris Art Fair a number of established and emerging Spanish artists such as Manolo Ballesteros (1965-), Ivan Franco (1979-), Regina Giménez (1966-), Antonio Gonzalez (1974-)...
Bucarest
Art Paris Art Fair takes a particular interest in the art scenes of Eastern Europe, and pays special attention to Romania. The declared mission of Allegra Nomad Gallery is to give international exposure to unknown artists – established, young or dead - and promote their work. The gallery presents a period of the Romanian avant-garde from the 1970s and 1980s which includes artists like Ion Bitzan, Ilie Pavel and Paul Neagu. Despite the political and ideological repression of the communist era, these artists managed to produce conceptual work.
Brussels
The young Belgian gallery Archiraar is among the dozen or so Brussels galleries participating in Art Paris Art Fair 2016. Working with an architect and a number of visual artists in its two spaces – White Cube and Black Cube – Archiraar gallery explores the notions of space and art. Caroline Le Méhauté presents Negociation 75 – semi-gravitational horizon which addresses the links between culture and space.
Geneva
This year, four galleries are representing the Geneva art scene at Art Paris Art Fair: Analix Forever, Bailly Gallery, Espace L and Art Bärtschi & Cie. The latter has organized a solo show of work by Belgian painter Antoine Roegiers. Since 2005, he has been using technology to explore masterpieces by some of the world’s greatest artists like Jerome Bosch or Pieter Brueghel. He has made a work based on the seven deadly sins with seven 3-minute videos.
Milan
Three galleries from Milan, Andrea Ingenito Contemporary Art, Progettoarte and Mimmo Scognamiglio, are joined by a fourth, Studio Giangaleazzo Visconti, located in the former studio Lucio Fontana. The gallery is best known for its work with Italian conceptual artists and the proponents of “Arte Povera.” However, for its first time at Art Paris Art Fair, the gallery is presenting artists from the post-war Japanese Gutai movement, namely Kazuo Shiraga and Shozo Shimamoto as well as Nobuo Sekine from the Mono-ha group.
Vienna
Established in 1971, Ernst Hilger gallery is one of the pillars of the Viennese art scene. It represents modernist Austrian artists as well as figures from international movements such as Pop Art or narrative figuration. For Art Paris Art Fair, the gallery has joined forces with the Vienna Angerlehner Museum to present a rare series entitled Femmes Fatales by a major figure of European Pop art, Icelandic artist Erró. In these portraits of heroines made between 1987 and 1996 painted in bright, even joyful colours, Erró gives a humouristic twist to his renderings of the myths of beautiful and deadly Superwomen.
Zürich
Zürich is an epicentre of contemporary creation in Europe, represented this year by three galleries: La Ligne, Bob Gysin and Andres Thalmann. Andres Thalmann Gallery has orchestrated a dialogue between Eastern and Western artists: inspired by nature, Nigel Hall’s sculptures stand alongside the charcoal hanging installations by Bahk Seon Ghi. The blurry images made by Korea’s Kyungwoo Chun speak to the paintings by Barbara Ellmerer. And finally the “Chinese” vases by Scotland’s Andrew James Ward inspired by a poem by the Hindu mustic Kabir are “the expression of life that is constantly evolving, the paradox of the infinite.”
