Bernar Venet, 1961—2021. 60 Years of Sculpture, Painting & Performance

January 12, 2022

On view from January 29, 2022 in Berlin, this dive into all facets of the internationally-renowned French artist’s 60-year oeuvre will showcase over 150 works across the reappropriated Tempelhof Airport’s hangars 2 and 3.

January 29 – May 30, 2022

Kunsthalle Berlin. Tempelhof Airport, hangars 2 and 3

January 12, 2022 (Berlin, Germany) – Bernar Venet, 1961—2021. 60 Years of Sculpture, Painting & Performance is the internationally-renowned French artist’s largest and most comprehensive retrospective in the world to date, spanning the entirety of his complex and widely diverse oeuvre as a sculptor, painter, performance artist – and radical conceptual artist. The exhibition will bring together over 150 works, reflecting the artist’s uncompromising approach and natural obsession for constantly shaping his environment through his art. On view from January 29 – May 30, 2022, the show is the first in a series of exhibitions to unfold over the next two years in the Kunsthalle Berlin across the spectacular hangars 2 and 3 of Berlin’s emblematic Tempelhof Airport.

Organized by the Stiftung für Kunst and Kultur, curated by Walter Smerling, Bernar Venet, 1961—2021 charts the trajectory of the artist’s career from his very beginnings in his studio, which was made available to him by the French army during his military service, and which form the cornerstone of a body of work that has repeatedly called itself into question. Venet has consistently affirmed his concept of art as an attitude which extends far beyond the formal and the spatial. His aspirations to this day are firmly rooted in the unbounded desire to simply never accept the world as it is, instead lending it his own perspective. Landscapes and spaces suddenly assume a new dimension, allowing the observer to differently view - and feel - the energetically charged space in which his signature steel lines, arcs and angles are installed.

The exhibition is a personal homage to Dr. Paul Wember, as Venet pays tribute to the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld – the very first to grant the artist a solo exhibition in 1970 at a time when no gallery had shown his work outside of group exhibitions.

One of the exhibition’s focuses is Venet’s work from 1966 to 1970 – his conceptual years in the United States – revealing the extreme radicality of an artistic approach which gave him international recognition at a very young age. Since 1979, and the fabrication of his Indeterminate Lines, his work has taken a turn towards the formalist. In addition to his wood reliefs, he has developed a unique steel sculpture style which can be seen today in capitals across the continents. For the show, Venet will use the sculptural elements of his large-scale installation at the Louvre Lens, France to specially conceive four different installations made of Arcs, Angles and Straight Lines unfolding across Tempelhof Airport’s spacious, yet seldom invested warehouses.

In tandem with his sculptural work, the exhibition expands Venet’s complete painting work, from his first
1961 Goudron (Tar) paintings to his most recent, Equations and Saturations, the textual and mathematical symbols of which become the defining elements over richly colored backgrounds. With these paintings, Venet rejects formalism as much as the idea of abstraction. While abstract art commonly refers to what is non-figurative, these new works function within another category. By presenting what are usually defined as “mathematical objects” (numbers, figures, spaces, functions, relations, structures), the works attain a maximum level of abstraction: the non-referential is pushed to its extreme limits. In sum, contrasting it to abstract art where a symbolism of form or color is implied, Venet offers a maximal self-referential system, which only a mathematical equation can offer.

*Installation View: BERNAR VENET. 1961 – 2021 | Kunsthalle Berlin – Flughafen Tempelhof. Photo: Daniel Biskup, Courtesy: Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur Bonn. ©Bernar Venet, ADAGP 2022.*

Throughout the course of exhibition Venet will activate the space with on-site performances, including Domino Effondrement, first performed in 2021 as part of the Venet Foundation’s annual exhibition (Le Muy, France), in which he uses a forklift to trigger the collapse of a seemingly random array of corten steel arcs – weighing over 30 tons – leaving them scattered across the floor, as order and chance grow inextricably bound together in this clearly visible accident. Also presented are iterations of The Steel Bar and the Pictorial Memory of the Gesture performance, which use the line as a tool to intersect the mediums of performance, painting, and sculpture. Using a steel beam coated in paint, Venet leaves the trace of the movement of the bar on the exhibition walls. Calling to mind the subtle asymmetry of inkblots used during The Rorschach Test, the work pushes the boundaries of Venet’s oeuvre by demonstrating how the body can be used as a tool to bring the mathematical concept of the line to life.

Unerringly direct, calculating, convinced of the emotionality and of the intention to symbiotically marry his existence with his creative aspirations, Venet once again renders his ultimately deeply optimistic aspiration not to reinvent the world, but to alter his viewers’ perception of it.

The exhibition follows the presentation "Diversity United. Contemporary European Art" in the former Tempelhof Airport from June 9 to October 10, 2021. Following its successful joint collaboration, Tempelhof Projekt GmbH and the Foundation for Art and Culture have agreed to work together and present future exhibitions in the Kunsthalle Berlin at hangars 2 and 3 of the former Tempelhof airport, initially for the next two years. The project is realized with the generous support of CG Elementum AG and its CEO Christoph Gröner.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

KUNSTHALLE BERLIN
Hangar 2 (Entrance) and 3
Columbiadamm 10
12101 Berlin, Germany

Opening Hours
Mo                   11 AM – 6 PM
Tuesday          closed
Wednesday     11 AM – 8 PM
Thurs – Sun     11 AM – 6 PM

Tickets
Adults                          10 €
Family                         16 € *
Children                       free**
Reduced                     5 € ***

* 2 Adults + Children
** Children under the age of 16
*** Groups of 10 or more and schoolchildren, students, unemployed, and ALG II recipients, recipients under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act, and disabled persons and their companions.

Catalogue
Bernar Venet 1961–2021, 60 Years of Sculptures, Paintings and Performances
336 pages
ISBN : 978-2-37372-145-4 / 45 €
Printed by Editions Dilecta, Paris. Distributed by Buchhandlung Walther König.

Organiser | Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur Bonn (Foundation for Art and Culture)
The Foundation for Art and Culture in Bonn is a non-profit organization, which was founded in 1986 as a private initiative. The overarching objective of the Foundation is to actively foster art and culture as an essential, stimulating and integral part of our civil society. Since its inception, it has focused on the conception and realisation of art exhibitions, and particularly on the presentation of art in the public space.

Organising discussions and events at the interface of culture, politics and commerce, the Foundation also supervises the operation of the MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art in Duisburg.
To date, the Foundation has staged many exhibitions and launched other art projects, both at home and abroad. Chairman of the Foundation is Walter Smerling.
www.stiftungkunst.de | www.kunsthalleberlin.com
Instagram @stiftungkunstbonn | Facebook @stiftungkunst | Twitter @stiftungkunst

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Emporio Sirenuse Positano Expands its Home Collection

December 9, 2021

Emporio Sirenuse presents new additions to its Home Collection – a splendid series of glassware, embroidered cushions, and decorated ceramics that echo the timeless aesthetics of the Amalfi Coast and pay homage to its continuing, evermore travelled tradition.

*Left. Chiara Goia. Suzani plates 33cm Ø. Home Collection 2022. Right. Chiara Goia Aria Glass. Home Collection 2022.*

December 10, 2021 (Positano, Italy) – The reputed luxury lifestyle brand Emporio Sirenuse, founded by Carla Sersale of the iconic family-run hotel Le Sirenuse, unveils the latest additions to its Home Collection. A collection of Murano glassware whose transparency romantically engages with the seascape of the Amalfi coast, tribal textured cushions paying homage to the embroidered Suzani and Ikat fabrics collected over the years by the late Franco Sersale – father-in-law of the founder – and hand-decorated ceramics inspired by the long tradition of the village of Vietri, will join the brand’s carefully designed fashion collections of beach-and resortwear, which continuously distill the values and verve of the inimitable Amalfi Coast hotel.

The Aria Glass Collection lends its name to the air we breathe, aria in Italian, and more specifically to the refreshing breeze that brushes the waves of the expansive sea surrounding Positano. An immersive series of glassware whose surfaces, like the reflective tints of the water once touched by light, project luminescent reflections in motion, their aquatic essence inspires a slow dance of changing hues on a cloud at sunset.

Designed to hold cocktails, long drinks, and generous cascades of ice, the Aria pieces embrace Negronis, Spritzes and Americanos as they do the refined champagne and local wines served on the airy terraces of Positano's Le Sirenuse hotel. Each Aria piece is individually blown by master glassmakers in the Murano furnaces of Nason Moretti, a company whose centennial history has long been at the forefront of the artistic Venetian glassmaking scene.

*Chiara Goia. Suzani Cushions. Flower Square Pillow Cases. Home Collection 2022*

The Suzani Cushions Collection seeks its inspiration from the Suzani- and Ikat-embroidered fabrics that populate the rooms filled throughout the years by the late Franco Sersale. Father-in-law of Carla Sersale, the passionate world traveler minutely composed a collection of objects and artworks alike which to this day form the core of the hotel’s unique flair. These striking silk covers are hand-embroidered by traditional artisans in Mumbai, as nomadic Central Asian arts and crafts make their first appearance in the flagship store on the Amalfi Coast – a chic and carefree interpretation of traditional Tajik, Uzbek and Kazakh motifs, which enter by a "step jazz" into the contemporary era with the tribal energy of its patterns and textures.

The same spellbinding range of motifs that call back to the ancient Suzani-embroidered fabrics of Central Asia, first developed into a collection of cushions, now finds their way into the new selection of Suzani Plates. Hand-painted ceramics from the storied traditions of Vietri, a small village at the end of the road to Amalfi, they revisit the motif, whose embrace of the material looks bolder and more striking than ever. Here, the Orient once again meets the Italian coast, celebrating the ingrained heritage of port cities, beating hearts par excellence of the dialogue between cultures, where objects, ideas, stories, and endless discoveries have never ceased to transit.

Emporio Sirenuse founder Carla Sersale explains:

“Our Suzani cushions and plates draw from ancient patterns of old civilizations from Central Asia. We reworked these themes in a modern, minimalist way, embroidering them on silk in India and hand painting them in Vietri style by our local skilled ceramists. The rainbow coloured, lightweight glassware adds and compliments the rest of our collection”.

The collection is available online at emporiosirenuse and exclusively on matchesfashion

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Le Sirenuse:

Le Sirenuse opened in 1951, when the Sersale family turned their Amalfi Coast summer house in Positano into a stylish small hotel. Today the 58-room resort is considered one of Italy’s leading seaside luxury hotels, though it still retains the intimate, cultured atmosphere of a private home. The rooms are contemporary yet reminiscent of a glamorous bygone era. The hotel may hail the renowned La Sponda restaurant, and a spa designed by architect Gae Aulenti, but Le Sirenuse is still very much a family affair. Second-generation co-owner Antonio Sersale looks after the day-to-day running of the hotel, while his wife Carla oversees the boutique Emporio Sirenuse and designs beach-oriented fashion collection Le Sirenuse Positano. Le Sirenuse has won numerous awards and is internationally renowned for the quality of its services.

sirenuse.it/en

About Emporio Sirenuse Positano:

Since opening in 1990 opposite the Sersales's iconic Le Sirenuse hotel, the Emporio Sirenuse Boutique has developed into a flourishing lifestyle brand with an e-commerce site and two adjacent shops in Positano: a Men's, Home Décor & Lifestyle store and a Women's store.

Founder Carla Sersale's own collection of resort wear, Le Sirenuse Positano, was launched in 2013 at the boutique. The line includes a unique range of prints and embroideries on caftans, silk summer dresses, and easy separates. The brand has since grown a loyal following worldwide and is distributed internationally at top retailers including Matchesfashion.com, Bergdorf Goodman, Net-a-Porter.com, Aerin, Kirna Zabete, Ounass, Harrods, Luisa Via Roma, and other select retailers worldwide.

Homeware – including glasses, ceramics and textiles – accessories, and fashion pieces are all handpicked or designed by Carla Sersale and curated to embody the chic, understated elegance of the hotel and lifestyle on the Amalfi Coast.

emporiosirenuse.com | @lesirenuse | @emporiosirenuse

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Artefact.Berlin Opens with the First of a Series of Exhibitions dedicated to Contemporary Art and Design

December 9, 2021

Opening on December 8, 2021, the exhibition, titled Remember That Time, will present large-scale paintings by American artist Gunars Martinsons marking the official opening of Artefact.Berlin's new space in the heart of Berlin Schöneberg.

Gunars Martinsons – Remember That Time

December 8, 2021 – February 25, 2022

Opening Preview: December 8, 2021 | 6 – 8 PM

*Gunars Martinsons,* Remember Things Past, 2013. 152 x 152 cm. Courtesy of the artist.

December 6, 2021 (Berlin, Germany) – Marking the inauguration of its new space Artefact.Berlin, founded in 2021 by cultural entrepreneur and longstanding collector Anna Rosa Thomae, unveils Remember That Time, a solo presentation of paintings by American artist Gunars Martinsons. The first in a series of exhibitions dedicated to art and design, the exhibition is an autobiographical dive into the artist’s journey through life, from memories from his childhood to a more mature reflection on existence, nourished by his dense geometric vocabulary and the emotional ties thereof.

Opening on December 8, 2021, Artefact.Berlin is a new gallery and project space prefiguring itself as an extension and complement to Thomae’s already reputed international cultural communications agency A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy, established in 2014. Through a series of curated art and design exhibitions, the project is rooted in Thomae’s ongoing commitment to supporting, presenting, and promoting art, design, and architecture as intrinsically connected disciplines.

The name of the gallery itself, artefact, is the entry point into the vision behind it. Derived from the Latin terms arte, or with skill, and factum, thing made or object, it acts as bridge between two worlds: the craft and the object, the way of making and the tangible iteration – ultimately, the elemental bond between the art and the design.

The gallery’s philosophy is based on opening a dialogue, connecting the past and the future, the everyday object and the work of art, the architectural space and the space of living – enhancing one by virtue of the other – experimenting with and reinterpreting the gallery concept and the collecting experience. With a rich program of carefully selected exhibitions focusing on contemporary art and design, the new space stands as an important reference point for art and design collectors and enthusiasts worldwide.

“Working at the crossroads of art and design, one particular, long-lived lesson has stood out to me – commonly, the notion of artefact is deeply tied to that of craft, and to a sense of past. Working with contemporary artists, architects and designers for over fifteen years, it struck me that craft is all but past, but in fact inherently contemporary.” – Anna Rosa Thomae

*Gunars Martinsons,* Youth With Turquoise Table, 1992. 70 x 100 cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Remember That Time, on view through February 25, 2022, is Hamburg-based American artist Gunars Martinsons’ first exhibition in Berlin – an extensive presentation of large-scale paintings that depict the artist's autobiographical, emotive and time-imbued journey through life, from the memories of his childhood to a more mature reflection on time, focusing on geometric compositions made of structural elements of architectural matrix.

At once figurative and abstract, the recurring motifs that compose his works call to a past time, most markedly that of the artist's childhood, observing his father at work. In fact,
the paintings are a tribute to Martinsons’ father, an architect whom he adored and admired, ultimately cultivating the artist’s own fascination with the discipline, and which can be traced in the structures that loom large in his imagery and rise in the colorful geometries of the glimpsed or imaginary buildings and constructions that inhabit his works.

Martinsons looks back to his paternal sources of inspiration:

“As a child, I would spend hours nosing around in my father’s studio, looking at the rolls of blueprints spread on tables, unfolding what, to my young eyes, appeared as wonderful abstractions of lines, squiggles, and shapes of all sizes and forms. I loved sitting at the drafting tables, in those days with no computers and cad systems to do the drawings. In my work, I retreat to the eye of that child – to this magical world to play with and explore – rendering the many stories concealed behind these architectural lines, long perpetuated in my mind.”

The canvases stand as broad geometrical yet free flowing architectural expanses, inviting viewers to imagine the individuals that inhabit these constructions, to create the experiences that fill them, to tell the memories that inhabit them. A fitting reflection of Artefact.Berlin’s spirit, this first exhibition leads the way for a contemplation on past and future, on time as it nourishes both space and object – an homage to all things remembered and loved.

Rooted in the Schöneberg district’s distinct architectural heritage, Artefact.Berlin will continuously connect with local art and design professionals and general audiences alike through a dense program of multidisciplinary events, talks, and performances, once again fostering Berlin’s extensive and widely diverse cultural community and its visibility worldwide.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Anna Rosa Thomae:
Growing up in Berlin in the 1990s, Anna Rosa Thomae spent her formative years living and working between New York, London, and Berlin. With a career of over fifteen years in the field of global cultural communications Thomae has ceaselessly nurtured the premise that valuable synergies exist between, and can emerge from, art, design and architecture – a vision that led her to establish her own consultancy, A R T in 2014 in Berlin. Ever since, Thomae has worked with creatives across all continents, ranging from gallerists, museums, and artists to designers, architects, and more.
A versed art and design collector, constantly shaped by her professional and personal encounters, Thomae has developed an extensive collection bringing together vintage European furniture from the 1960s—1980s in tandem with Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art.
Established in 2021, Artefact.Berlin is the symbiosis between these two passions that continue to develop to this day.

About Gunars Martinsons:
Gunars Martinsons is a Hamburg-based American artist working in painting, prints, and photography. Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin (United States) to European parents, he was exposed to arts and encouraged to cultivate his creative eye from a very young age.
A graduate in the Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he moved to Europe – where he has lived ever since, and where he developed a career in advertising. A commercials director, he spent the past decades travelling internationally for his work, all-the-while pursuing his artistic practice.

Remember That Time, on view at Artefact.Berlin from December 8, 2021—February 25, 2022, is Martinsons’s first solo exhibition in Berlin.

Gunars Martinsons – Remember That Time

Artefact.Berlin | Geisbergstraße 12, 10777 Berlin, Germany

artefactgalleryberlin.com | @artefactgallery.berlin

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Afikaris Gallery Sways Visitors through The Imaginary Lands of Moroccan Artist Omar Mahfoudi's 'El Dorado'

December 9, 2021

Mahfoudi’s first major solo exhibition in France, El Dorado brings together the latest works from his sold-out Golden painting series, first unveiled last October at 1-54 London. On view from December 11, 2021— January 11, 2022, the dozen new works will be presented as a site-specific installation pursuing the nostalgic rêverie perceptible throughout his work.

December 11, 2021–January 11, 2022

*Left. Omar Mahfoudi,* Can’t Remember Anything at All, *2021. Acrylic and ink on canvas, 180 x 150 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS gallery. Right. Omar Mahfoudi,* Nowhere to Rest With Nowhere to Land, *2021. Acrylic and ink on canvas, 120 x 180 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS gallery.*

December 9, 2021 (Paris, France) – Marking the last of a series of exhibitions this year dedicated to the emerging African art scene, Paris-based AFIKARIS Gallery unveils rising Moroccan artist Omar Mahfoudi’s very first personal exhibition at the gallery and first major solo show in France. Echoing the gallery’s inaugural show Quitter la Ville (January 9—February 10, 2021), a dialogue between Mahfoudi and Cameroonian painter Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, El Dorado bears witness to the conceptual and thematic evolution in the Paris-based artist’s work. From December 11, 2021—January 11, 2022, the selection of a dozen unseen canvases from his acclaimed Golden Oasis series once again invites his viewers to immerse in his dreamy imaginary – a journey to nowhere, in search of utopia.

The legend of El Dorado has changed and morphed over time. That which once was a quest for a golden empire is now synonym to a search for a utopia – a metaphor for not only immense wealth, but also boundless love, thunderous success, a heaven that sits somewhere, eternally out of reach. The object of desire – this heaven forever out of reach – has never materialized; instead, the quest for it has inspired the legend. Whether manifested in the physical or spiritual world, or held within oneself, Omar Mahfoudi (b. 1981, Tangier, Morocco)’s work poses the question – what are you searching for?

Inspired by the cinematography of Andrei Tarkovsky and Werner Herzog, seeped in dreamlike visual imagery and preoccupied with nature and memory, Mahfoudi takes viewers on a journey through his, and their, El Dorado – a trip with no destination, through endless sprawling landscapes, horizons of Japan, South America, and his native Morocco.

*Omar Mahfoudi,* Waiting in Merzouga, *2021. Acrylic and ink on canvas, 185 x 172 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS gallery.*

While the immersive installation specially conceived by the artist for the occasion – a two-meter barque set at the heart of the gallery space and filled with flowers – embarks visitors on the journey to this El Dorado, Waiting in Merzouga (2021) expands a mysterious and illusive landscape, emerging from the artist’s few signature golden strokes. Shades of gold are coated on the canvas as a sweeping driving force – or used as tactical touches. Alongside his metallic golds are loud bursts of color, like budding flowers, and motions mirroring the forms of water or sand.

The movement of the dunes, which could also be seen as a choppy sea if not for the lone wonderer in its depths – contrasts with the stillness of the human form. Is the figure lost? Is it a ghost? Is it truly depicted, or is it imagined? Through these few visual clues, Mahfoudi, who seemingly invites his viewers into his own rêverie, in fact rouses them to create their own narrative, a golden desert of their own, an echo to their very own stories and approach to the world.

A mystical ambiguity also surrounds these characters. Visually, one cannot gather race, ethnicity, nor gender, rendering them more akin to figures, sometimes shadows, than tangible individuals. Mahfoudi’s evasive somebodies appear captured on their own quests, their ceaseless Odysseys– languidly wandering the expanses of land and water on horseback, on boat, or on foot. The incertitude that weaves through his work recalls that of El Dorado, a known utopia, shared across centuries and cultures, yet one that exists without a specific geography, people, nor meaning.

As viewers see the characters, they are brought to ponder on the where’s, why’s, and if’s of their search. With no response to be found in Mahfoudi’s boundless horizons, one cannot but wonder whether these characters truly exist, or whether they are a pure creation of the mind, a reflection of oneself in a golden oasis.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Omar Mahfoudi:
Omar Mahfoudi (b. 1981, Tangier, Morocco) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and lives in Paris. In his art, he reinvents and rewrites the history of human beings through emotions.

Mainly working with acrylic and ink, he plays with the movement of the matter created on the surface of the canvas. His oases, timeless territories bathed in a distant light and conducive to rêverie, are nourished and enriched by his eclectic influences: from the Amazônia series by photographer Sebastião Salgado, to the prints of Katsushika Hokusai. In his most recent work, the color gold, evocative to the desert of his Moroccan heritage, impregnates his imagery with heat and mystery.

Omar Mahfoudi’s work has been featured in numerous international fairs such as AKAA (Paris); 1-54 London (London); and ARCO (Madrid). El Dorado will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in a gallery in France.

About AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris:
Founded in 2018 by Florian Azzopardi, AFIKARIS Gallery started as an online platform and showroom specialized in the work of both emerging and established artists from African and its diaspora, before opening a dedicated Paris-based gallery space in 2021. Engaged in promoting cross cultural and disciplinary exchange, AFIKARIS acts as a platform for artists to engage with the wider public. A mirror onto and space for reflection on the contemporary African art scene, it provides artists with a space to address the topical local and international issues at the heart of their art.

AFIKARIS’s curated program includes group and solo exhibitions; art fairs; publications; as well as institutional partnerships.

Omar Mahfoudi, El Dorado | December 11, 2021—January 11, 2022 AFIKARIS Gallery
38 rue Quincampoix
75004 Paris, France

info@afikaris.com | www.afikaris.com

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The Nomadic Art Gallery Presents the Group Exhibition 'Nipple Twist', Pursuing its Exploration of the Contemporary New Zealand Art Scene in Dialogue with European Artists

December 8, 2021

Inaugurated in October 2021, the Leuven-based Nomadic Art Gallery unveils its second in situ exhibition as New Zealand artists Oliver Cain and Chloe Marsters and Belgium-based artists Merijn Verhelst, Amat Gueye, and Layla Saâd jointly explore, twist, and deconstruct the many, often controversial and at times conflicting, meanings that surround the nipple.

Nipple Twist | December 3, 2021 – January 14, 2022
Ocean Breeze | January 15—March 3, 2022

*Left. Merijn Verhelst,* Untitled 1, *2021. Acrylic on wooden construction, 60 x 82 x 3.75 cm. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery and the artist. Right. Oliver Cain,* Yellow Pink, *2021. Ceramic and wooden frame, 40 x 45 cm. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery and the artist.*

November 23, 2021 (Leuven, Belgium) – Following the successful opening of its first physical space in Leuven, Belgium, in October 2021, The Nomadic Art Gallery, the contemporary art gallery and public art and research project founded in 2020 by Gie and Arthur Buerms, pursues its exploration of the New Zealand contemporary art scene with its second on-site exhibition, Nipple Twist. From December 3, 2021—January 14, 2022, the group presentation places once again NZ artists in dialogue with their European peers, as Oliver Cain (b. 1996, United Kingdom) and Chloe Marsters (b. 1989, Auckland) in tandem with Merijn Verhelst (b. 1991, Leuven), Amat Gueye (b. 1995, Paris), and Layla Saâd (b. 1997, Liège) investigate the semantic and conceptual connotations behind this controversial body part.

Ushering in the gallery’s 2022 digital exhibitions program, dedicated exclusively to NZ’s contemporary scene, the much-anticipated Ocean Breeze, a showcase of lens-based artists Edith Amituanai, Sione Monu, Raymond Sagalopulutele, and Taute Vai will open on The Nomadic Art Gallery’s digital platform on January 15, 2022 – revisiting the groundbreaking 1994 Bottled Ocean exhibition which for the first time brought contemporary Pacific art onto the international stage.

Nipple Twist can be thought of as a two-part exhibition, where notions of gender and sexuality assume a sense of escapism as they meet in the many forms and meanings behind the nipple. Expanding across the gallery’s four distinct spaces, the five artists playfully embrace and revisit the silenced body feature’s manifold connotations, both materially and in the shared imaginary, bringing into question cultural customs and societal conventions.

Turning to the material, literal, understanding of the nipple, Oliver Cain, an English-New Zealand artist based in Auckland, sets the tone for the rest of the exhibition. The physicality of his subverted ceramic sculptures reflects that of the subject at hand, as he boldly appropriates and transforms its form. Cast in a plurality of shapes and sizes, the strangely frivolous nipples pop out of the seeming confines of their rectangular frames. Pointing to Cain’s curious post-pop art touch, the bright, contrasting colors of the 24 ceramic nipple-wooden framed sculptures place the nipple on the center stage as a newly found irreverence comes to replace the initial sense of eroticism.

*Amat Gueye,* Caverne Mystère, *2021. Ink on glossy paper on mounted wooden box, 152 x 107 x 4 cm. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery and the artist.*

Auckland-based artist Chloe Marsters’s intricate drawings and prints push Cain’s questioning further. Absorbing viewers in the organic, sensual embrace of her female figures, Marsters sets forth a soft yet seductive nudity, one impressed in the flowing natural elements, stalks and beetles alike, that constitute and cover their skins. Surrounded by spikes and leaves, the works acquire an added, yet untouchable materiality – subtly suggestive, at once brazenly tempting and entirely fetishized.

Set in the lower floor under an evocative red light, Liège-based artist Layla Saâd’s sensuous photographs thrust the fetish onto the sanctified. Controversy transpires through her work, both in her choice of subjects, nameless women met at the margins of society, and in her partial representation of their bodies. Helplessly lured by these forms, viewers are forced to confront their own, senseless projections: those of a society that dictates a repudiation of the body, only to give it an all-the-more powerful appeal.

In sum, by plainly representing it, Cain, Marsters, and Saâd jointly twist the meaning of the nipple, laying it bare as a shifting social construct.

“Delving into the work of these widely diverse artists, each distinctly twisting and pushing the constraints of his chosen medium, the notion of nipple twist, one seemingly hailing a very culturally specific meaning, takes on a markedly universal sense. The meaning of this western idiom comes to mirror that of the nipple itself – a shifting, sometimes contradictory one, rooted in societal constructs.” – Gie and Arthur Buerms

*Left. Layla Saâd,* Der Rum 2, *2018. Inkjet print on aluminum, 50 x 75 cm. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery and the artist. Right. Chloe Marsters,* Lottia, *2021. Ink and marker on paper, 42 x 29.7 cm. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery and the artist.*

Offering a conceptual reading of the term, Leuven- and Brussels-based artists Merijn Verhelst and Amat Gueye move from the representation to the interpretation of the culturally rooted term: their works are the nipple twist. Genital and scatological jokes fill Verhelst’s sculptural paintings, evoking an initial feeling of pointlessness. As the wooden works’ multiple layers gradually appear, as patches of black paint leak from the seemingly joyous colors, entry points into the artist’s singular world, nods to a childhood reality and secret imaginary, emerge, visually twisting viewers’ initial response.

In a similar vein, Gueye oscillates between methodology and happenstance. His deliberate choice of material and random subject matter comes to embody the volatile nature of contemporary culture. No distinct images stick on his wooden canvases. Instead, blurred forms mysteriously suggest the remnants of a shared, almost lost, visual language – barely perceptible hints to shared pop symbols, cartoons, and childhood memories. Faced by a hazed meaning, viewers latch on to these references, left to wander the border between the imagined and the real.

By giving voice to its endless physical, cultural, historical, and personal meanings, the exhibition strips the nipple from all and any set definition, thereby unsettling viewers into their very own nipple twist. Calling out the volatility of these meanings, the artists commonly engage against the stream of conservatism and censorship, hailing instead a newly found sense of semantic, and universal, freedom.

As this second part of The Nomadic Art Gallery’s New Zealand chapter continues to unfold – the result of Gie and Buerms’s one-year in situ immersion into the underrepresented NZ art scene investing a repurposed truck as a mobile gallery – the duo reflects:

“By engaging with this subject matter, the artists lead viewers into a form of visual and semantic introspection which ultimately liberates them from these constructs. In doing so, regardless of their background, whether from Europe or from New Zealand, they aptly point to obsolete sociocultural norms, tinged with conservatism and censorship, which they deconstruct together.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About The Nomadic Art Gallery, Leuven, Belgium:
Founded in 2020 by Arthur Buerms and long-time partner Gie, The Nomadic Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery and public art and research project currently based in Leuven, Belgium.

Building on a cyclical model rooted in the notion of nomadism, the initiative unfolds through two alternating phases. The first is an in-situ immersion within an underrepresented art scene, during which Arthur and Gie invest a mobile vehicle to conduct research in the given location, the latter ultimately becoming a public art project.

The second phase is set in a transitional gallery space – a temporary location in Europe which changes with each showcased art scene and where the duo initiates a dialogue between their research and the European contemporary art scene, through a program of both physical and online exhibitions.

Nipple Twist, group exhibition of Oliver Cain, Chloe Marsters, Merijn Verhelst, Amat Gueye, and Layla Saâd | December 3, 2021—January 14, 2022
The Nomadic Art Gallery
Brusselsesteenweg 168
3020 Herent [near Leuven], Belgium

Ocean Breeze, group exhibition of Edith Amituanai, Sione Monu, Raymond Sagalopulutele, and Taute Vai | January 15—March 3, 2022 [Digital Exhibition]

www.thenomadicartgallery.com
nomads@thenomadicartgallery.com
Instagram | @thenomadicgallery7
Facebook | @TheNomadicArtGallery

About Oliver Cain:
Oliver Cain (b. 1996, United Kingdom) is an English-born New Zealand-based artist whose work develops and covers a wide range of topics using various materials. His artworks, subverted linguistic paintings, ceramic sculptures, and installations, bear a certain physicality, and push the boundaries between conceptualism and post-pop art.

Cain’s creative process is a key element in his practice, resulting in works that can take any form and consistence. Throughout his work, appropriated everyday objects transform stereotypes and famous art historical references are twisted. A proud member of the queer community, Cain uses his work to examine, question, and criticize the relationships between gender, (homo)sexuality and societies’ misconceptions surrounding these themes. However, and despite initial appearances, a purely erotic and queer reading of his work is often misguided as a universal profundity is always at play, revealing itself gradually to those willing to look and feel.

Oliver Cain won the Eden Arts Award in 2019 and was a finalist in the Wallace Arts Awards and NZ Contemporary Art Awards (2020/2021). Recent exhibitions include the International Ceramic Biennale of Talavera (Spain); Pātaka Art+Museum (WAA, New Zealand); Copelouzos Family Art Museum as part of the COV—ART Project (Greece); the ART MATTERS 3 online group show at Galerie Biesenbach (Germany); the It’s a Boy solo show featuring Billy Apple at Föenander Galleries (New Zealand); and Paint etc. at the Corban Estate Arts Centre (New Zealand).

About Chloe Marsters:
Chloe Marsters (b. 1989, Auckland) is an Auckland-based artist of Cook Island descent. Laureate as a teenager of the Parklane Wallace Trust Development Award as part of the prestigious Wallace Trust Art Awards in 2009, she gained critical success early on in her artistic career.

Marsters is known for her intricate and meticulous drawings and prints referencing both the human form and nature. Her tailored silhouettes, made of flowing natural elements, combine the elegant aesthetics of fashion with the punk-rock attitude that tints much of her practice.

Recent exhibitions include a pop-up group exhibition at Barrel Store Colony (New Zealand).

About Merijn Verhelst:
Merijn Verhelst (b. 1991, Leuven) is a self-taught Belgian artist currently based in Brussels. His work is deceivingly simple, at once playful and naïvely melancholic, sometimes scatological yet very much layered in sophistication. Distinct throughout his overwhelming, obtrusive sculptural paintings, his tone is at once oddly humorous and emotionally charged.

Verhelst intuitively conceives optically dazzling works, until all the separate pieces of wood, marks, lines, and forms unite into a singular world. This non-representational universe ultimately initiates a dialogue between the abundance of neon colors and formalist aesthetic, all-the-while acting as an entry point into his child imagination – a childhood freezer filled with popsicles alongside hints of secret passageways. Combining a sense of craftsmanship with select flattened brushstrokes, his X-ray, precise abstract language is a subtle combination of elements of pop art and minimalism.

Recent exhibitions include the Art strEAT solo exhibition (2019) and m0(ve)ment group show (2017) as part of Life of L (Belgium).

About Amat Gueye:
Amat Gueye (b. 1995, Paris) is a French/Senegalese artist and recent graduate of the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambre (Belgium).

Alternating between traditional and unconventional modes of painting, Gueye skillfully uses a unique technique through which he applies ink on glossy paper to create depth and optical illusions. Gueye combines figurative and abstract elements, in works that echo diversity, noise, abundance, and blurred uncertainty. Through his intense dynamics and color palette, he conceives works whose visual markers are symptomatic of a time where the flow of (digital) images is constant, extensive, and fast.

His deliberate choice of material, random subject matter, and happy accidents affecting the works create an individual and nuanced combination, echoing a shared yet impalpable contemporary visual culture. Gueye’s artistic spirit embodies a form of 1990s nostalgia and escapism, one filled with references to cartoons, video games, myths, fantasy, pulsating techno, and pinball machines.

A mélange of unseen amalgams and abstracted objects populate his wooden canvases, conceptually exploring dichotomies between the real and the digital, the natural and the artificial. Gazing through his work, one starts to wonder how much of human technology is in fact informed by nature.

Gueye has participated in several group shows in galleries and artist-run spaces in Brussels, including Rochet Sedin Gallery; Espace Adventura; and Hermany.

About Layla Saâd:
Layla Saâd (b. 1997, Liège) is a Liège-based artist and photographer. A graduate of the Photography module from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc Liège (2020), Saâd won that same year the Prix Roger de Conynck awarded by the King Baudouin Foundation. In 2021, Saâd participated in the Biennale de Photographie en Condroz (Belgium) and was selected for a promising mentoring program at Agence VU (Paris), which she is currently undertaking.

With a freedom of style and technique, the young photographer explores the life of alternative worlds created on the fringes of society or in reaction to its normalized principles.

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Untitled Art 2021, Miami Beach | AFIKARIS Gallery Presents 'The New Hercules', the Latest Series of Cameroonian Artist Jean David Nkot

November 22, 2021

Untitled Art | AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris | Booth C55
30 November—4 December 2021
Preview: Monday 29 November, 1—8PM
Miami Beach

*Above. Jean David Nkot,* www.transporteur à titrer.cm.org, *2021. Acrylic and silkscreen printing on canvas, 200 x 315 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery and the artist. Below. Jean David Nkot,* #Les légendes de la discorde.com, *2021. Acrylic and silkscreen printing on canvas, 160 x 140 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery and the artist.*

November 22, 2021 (Miami Beach, United States) – On the occasion of the Untitled Art Miami Beach art fair, Paris-based AFIKARIS Gallery unveils The New Hercules, the latest series of works by established Cameroonian artist Jean David Nkot (b. 1989, Douala, Cameroon), marking the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States.

In The New Hercules series, Nkot brings forth the strength and beauty of the bodies which he depicts. While he still evokes ore extraction – in the continuity of his work started in 2020 addressing the exploitation of raw materials throughout the African continent, and the human consequences thereof – he focuses here on the anatomy and resilience of those who work in the mines, erecting them as contemporary heroes.

For Nkot, these new Hercules are those who run the contemporary economy. Akin to the multifaceted Greek divinity, their abnegation and suffering comes at the service of others. Just as the demigod was said to achieve insurmountable tasks – freeing the people from desolation – to get his own redemption, today’s heroes extract the raw materials that ensure modern societies’ shared comfort, be it at the hands of an ever-exploitative market economy.

Recording his own Odyssey, a contemporary iteration of Homer’s Twelve Labors of Hercules, Nkot frees them from the weight of their work, emphasizing their triumph over a hostile environment. In sum, The New Hercules sheds light on these news heroes, lending them a new destiny by hailing their recognition and protection.

---

NOTES TO EDITORS:
Human@Condition, the first monograph of Jean David Nkot’s work, edited by AFIKARIS Gallery in collaboration with leading international curators, will be available for purchase at the gallery booth and online at www.afikaris.com.

About Jean David Nkot:
Jean David Nkot (b. 1989, Douala, Cameroon) is a visual artist who works and lives in Douala. A graduate from the Institute of Artistic Training (IFA), Mbalmayo, Cameroon (2010), he subsequently joined the Institute of Fine Arts, Foumban, where he obtained a degree in Drawing and Painting. In 2017, he took part in the Moving Frontiers post-Master’s Degree, focused on the topic of borders, organized by the National School of Arts, Paris-Cergy, France.

Working primarily with acrylic and posca, he continuously seeks to revisit his pictorial language and often experiments with other techniques, including silkscreen printing. His highly characteristic signature style places hyperrealist portraits over complex cartographies. A “painter of the human condition,” his artworks expose faces submerged by inscriptions, depicting characters both reflective of and reflected upon their physical and geopolitical context. Moving away from the personal identities of his subjects, Nkot draws attention to the embodied turmoil inhabiting them – in a manner reminiscent of Zhang Dali, Francis Bacon, and Jenny Saville.

Jean David Nkot’s work has been presented in key international institutions including: Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris, France; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany; Doual’art, Douala, Cameroon; National Museum of Cameroon, Yaounde. His first solo show in France, Human@Condition, was held at AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris, from May 29—July 7, 2021.

The New Hercules presented at Untitled Art, Miami Beach, from November 29—December 4, 2021, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States.

About AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris:
Founded in 2018 by Florian Azzopardi, AFIKARIS Gallery started as an online platform and showroom specialized in the work of both emerging and established artists from African and its diaspora, before opening a dedicated Paris-based gallery space in 2021. Engaged in promoting cross cultural and disciplinary exchange, AFIKARIS acts as a platform for artists to engage with the wider public. A mirror onto and space for reflection on the contemporary African art scene, it provides artists with a space to address the topical local and international issues at the heart of their art.

AFIKARIS’s curated program includes group and solo exhibitions; art fairs; publications; as well as institutional partnerships.

Currently on view:
Humano e a Natureza | November 6—December 7, 2021
AFIKARIS Gallery
38 rue Quincampoix
75004 Paris, France
info@afikaris.com
www.afikaris.com

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Fine Arts Paris Opens for its Fifth Edition, With New Disciplines Including Non-Western Artistic Scenes; Scenography by Jacques Garcia; and the Annual Off-Site Parisian Fine Arts Week

November 9, 2021

On view until November 11, 2021 | Carrousel du Louvre, Paris

*Fine Arts Paris 2021. View of the scenography by Jacques Garcia in the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris. Courtesy of Fine Arts Paris.*

November 9, 2021 (Paris, France) – On view until November 11, 2021, Fine Arts Paris – the Paris-based specialist art fair dedicated to the fine arts from Antiquity to modern times – returns for a fifth edition in its emblematic venue, the Carrousel du Louvre. The premier destination for fine arts in Paris, the fair brings together once more the most prominent dealers in their fields. A reunion of some 60 exhibitors, and alongside its returning participants – Steinitz, Xavier Eeckhout, and Marianne Rosenberg – the fair welcomes 21 new dealers among which De Jonckheere, Christian Deydier, Robilant + Voena, Tanakaya, Patrick & Ondine Mestdagh, Laocoon Gallery & W. Apolloni, as well as jewelers Véronique Bamps and Walid Akkad.

This expanded edition presents an expert selection of painting, drawing, and sculpture, alongside new disciplines including fine jewelry, rare books, and for the first time, non-Western art scenes; a curated scenography by acclaimed French interior designer Jacques Garcia; and the annual Fine Arts Week, in collaboration with notable museums and institutions across Paris.

THE PARISIAN ART FAIR FOR OLD MASTERS
Old Master paintings are one of the best-represented segments at Fine Art Paris. The highlights this year include the first ever market appearance of Frans Francken the Younger’s The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite (circa 1607) presented by Galerie De Jonckheere (Geneva); Galerie G. Sarti (Paris)’s triptych by Simone di Filippo, precious testimony to the training of this major figure in Bolognese painting of the second half of the 14th century; a noteworthy feminist painting by Marguerite Gérard, witness to the gradual emancipation of women throughout the 18th century, at Galerie Eric Coatalem (Paris); a collection of Flemish paintings from the 16th through the 18th century for Florence de Voldère (Paris)’s first presentation at the fair – to cite but a few notable displays among which those of F. Baulme Fine Arts (Paris); Didier Aaron (Paris); Galerie Terrades (Paris); Talabardon & Gautier (Paris); and more.

*Fine Arts Paris 2021. View of the Galerie Steinitz (Paris) booth. Courtesy of Fine Arts Paris.*

SCULPTURE AT FINE ARTS PARIS
Old and Modern sculpture alike have repeatedly made their mark at Fine Arts Paris. Joining for the first time this year are prominent dealers Laocoon Gallery & W. Apolloni (London, Rome) and Robilant + Voena (London, et al.), the latter with a curated selection bringing together 19th-century painting and sculpture. Galerie Malaquais (Paris) presents an exceptional set of 15 sculptures by Aristide Maillol – the result of a 15-year-long dive into the work produced by the trio he formed with dealer Ambroise Vollard and bronze founder Florentin Godard; a dedicated selection of works by Roger Godchaux at Xavier Eeckhout (Paris), marking the publication of the very first catalogue raisonné dedicated to this once marginal, now rediscovered sculptor; alongside the booths of Univers du Bronze (Paris); Lancz Gallery (Brussels); and Galerie Sismann (Paris)

INTO THE 19TH CENTURY
Fine Arts Paris showcases once again the grandeur of the 19th century through remarkable presentations from De Bayser (Paris), with an in situ portrait by Jean-Léon Gérôme; a dive into the long-decried world of the demi-mondaines through the eyes of Henri Gervex at Galerie Charvet (Paris); an in-depth study of light and color by Alfred Dehodencq shown by Edouard Ambroselli (Paris); alongside Fabienne Fiacre (Paris) and first-time participant Paul Prouté (Paris).

*Fine Arts Paris 2021. View of the Perrin (Paris, London) booth. Courtesy of Fine Arts Paris.*

REVIEWING MODERN ART
Completing its far-reaching overview of the fine arts, Fine Arts Paris also dedicates a focus to Modern Art – this year, as shown by specialist dealers Brame & Lorenceau (Paris) with works by Hans Hartung (1904—1989); Galerie de la Présidence (Paris) through Sonia Delaunay (1885—1979) and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908—1992); Galerie Seine 55 (Paris) with Pierre Soulages (1919); Ditesheim & Maffei (Neufchâtel); Rosenberg & Co (New York); Galerie Laurentin (Paris, Brussels); to cite only a few.

APPROACHING THE DECORATIVE ARTS
Returning this year is Antoine Béchet (Paris), the widely considered specialist in old picture frames, alongside Royal Provenance (Paris), with a rare presentation of 1812 Sèvres porcelain plate crafted for Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte’s personal dinner service. Also participating are first-time exhibitors Galleria Dei Coronari (Rome) and Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz (Paris, New York), leading international specialist in antique wallpapers.

*Fine Arts Paris 2021. View of the Galerie de la Présidence (Paris) booth. Courtesy of Fine Arts Paris.*

JEWELRY MAKES ITS DEBUT AT FINE ARTS PARIS
This year’s edition brings forth new disciplines, among which fine jewelry, represented by three prominent, widely distinct profiles, who nevertheless share the understanding of jewelry as a form of art. While Véronique Bamps (Monaco) presents some of the rarest antique jewelry on the market, Walid Akkad (Paris) demonstrates his expertise in jewelry as a craft which he follows from the drawing and modeling to the sculpting, treating his pieces as he would sculptures. Frédérique Mattei (Paris)’s “sculptures to wear” complete this selection, harmoniously bringing together civilizations, eras, and materials alike to construct wearable universes of her own.

LOOKING TO NON-WESTERN ART SCENES
The fair is delighted to introduce for the first time non-Western artistic scenes, as represented by three reputed European dealers. Looking to East Asia, Paris-based Tanakaya presents a selection of prints by some of the greatest Japanese drawers of the 18th through to the 20th centuries while Galerie Christian Deydier (Paris) showcases an exceptional Chinese bronze from the 18th century BC. Mixing pieces from four continents, Patrick & Ondine Mestdagh (Brussels) expands a cabinet d’amateurs, with pieces ranging from pendants to furniture.

SCENOGRAPHY
Complementing its outstanding selection of exhibitors, Fine Arts Paris invites visitors to immerse in the world of the fine arts. Acclaimed French interior designer and decorator Jacques Garcia has been commissioned for the fair’s scenography – bringing his sober and elegant touch to the Carrousel du Louvre’s entrance under the notable glass pyramid of the Louvre. Rooting his design in the history of the site, he takes inspiration from the 14th-century defense system revealed when the Carrousel was first built, bringing forth a both oneiric and theatrical contemporary atmosphere involving 14 mineral and vegetal elements subtly dispersed across the space.

FINE ARTS WEEK
First launched in 2018, Fine Arts Paris once again hails the Semaine des Beaux-Arts, Fine Arts Week, an off-site itinerary organized in partnership with over 20 leading institutions and museums across Paris and its region, among which the Musée du Louvre, Maison Victor Hugo, Musée Condé, Musée de l’Armée, the Château de Fontainebleau, and the Emile Hermès Collection.

ATTENDING THE FAIR ONLINE
Finally, and after a widely successful launch in 2020 with over 20,000 visitors, Fine Arts Paris Online is for a second time hosted on the fair’s website, facilitating connectivity between dealers and visitors unable to attend the physical fair.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Fine Arts Paris:
Established in 2017 by the founders of Salon du dessin, Fine Arts Paris is the Paris-based specialist art fair dedicated to the fine arts from Antiquity to modern times. Following a first edition at the Palais Brongniart, Paris, which brought together 34 exhibitors of painting, drawing and sculpture, the fair moved to the Carrousel du Louvre, its emblematic venue since then, welcoming 46 exhibitors and gradually opening up to other specialties, including archaeology and tapestries. In 2018, Fine Arts Paris launched the off-site event Fine Arts Week, held at the same time as the fair, in partnership with 20 Parisian museums and institutions. While the 2020 health crisis and subsequent lockdown led to the cancellation of that year’s physical edition, Fine Arts Paris Online, presented as a replacement for the first time, gathered 55 exhibitors, hailing over 20,000 visitors.

Fine Arts Paris’s fifth edition is taking place until November 11, 2021, at the Carrousel du Louvre and online.

Carrousel du Louvre | 99 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
www.fineart-paris.com

Opening Hours
Tuesday, November 9 | 12—10PM (late opening)
Wednesday, November 10 | 12—8PM
Thursday, November 11 | 12—7PM

Admission Fee | 15 €/7.5 € (for students and groups)

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Local Culture and Nature Come Together in Heim Balp Architekten's Newly Completed Casa d'Poço in Cabo Verde

November 9, 2021

Left. Heim Balp Architekten. Exterior view (street-side) of the Casa d’Poço in Mindelo, Cabo Verde. Photography by Francesca Iovene. Courtesy of Heim Balp Architekten. Right. Heim Balp Architekten. Exterior view (interior courtyard) of the Casa d’Poço in Mindelo, Cabo Verde. Photography by Francesca Iovene. Courtesy of Heim Balp Architekten.

The Casa d’Poço echoes Cabo Verde’s distinct cultural and natural markers as Berlin-based architects and urban thinkers Heim Balp Architekten once again demonstrate their engagement in respecting and celebrating local cultures while creating a versatile, multifunctional space, rooted in the local community.

November 3, 2021 (Mindelo, Cabo Verde) – Located in the historic district of Mindelo in Cabo Verde’s São Vicente island, the Casa d’Poço, HEIM BALP ARCHITEKTEN’s latest completion, reflects the Berlin-based practice’s sensitivity to local cultures as a means to foster a sense of community through architecture. Through their signature use of the hybrid façade, Heim Balp Architekten refer to both the aesthetics and the materials that characterize Cabo Verde’s distinct cultural identity and natural assets, all-the-while conceiving a versatile space, at once public and private, bringing together the residential, the cultural, and hospitality.

Intent on retaining a contextual essence, local cultures continuously guide the structural, material and aesthetic choices in Heim Balp’s designs – an engagement perceptible in notable projects such as their Carrer de la Diputació and de Nàpols urban infills in Barcelona, nourished by the city’s distinct architectural language, or their ongoing restoration of the relinquished Lindower Straße factory complex, a mirror onto Berlin’s industrial past.

At the Casa d’Poço, the façade of the five-storey building acts as a reflection onto the archipelago’s São Vicente and Santo Antão islands and their distinct cultural and environmental markers. A response to São Vicente’s notable stone-dominated architecture, the street-facing side is clad with three-dimensional wooden shades as a warmer, more welcoming alternative, one in touch with the island’s reputation as the beating heart of the annual Carnival. The hybrid panels, made of Mahogany wood, provide shaded protection from the sun and heat. Alternatively open and shut, a musicality emanates from the vertical shutters as they become the shifting background and scenery of the Carnival, echoing the constantly changing and vivacious costumes of the performers that inhabit the streets.

The rear façade, fixed with cascading terraces, opening up the courtyard below, calls to the farming landscape of the neighboring Santo Antão island and its galloping mountains. Endowed with an abounding nature, the result of a humid climate that opposes that of São Vicente, the island’s hills are punctuated with overlaying plateaus, forming basins that collect water from the heavy rains. In a refreshing homage to this system, the Casa d’Poço’s interior terraces hold overflowing pots of whispering wheat and maize; flood-like rainfall pours down onto these balconies and the courtyard nestled in the garden. Collected in a cistern, the water is also used to grow plants in drier seasons.

*Heim Balp Architekten. Interior view of the Casa d’Poço in Mindelo, Cabo Verde. Photography by Francesca Iovene. Courtesy of Heim Balp Architekten.*

Bringing together São Vicente’s urban touch and Santo Antão’s greenery, the design furthers its dialogue with Cabo Verde’s cultural and natural traits through other structural choices. The island’s imposing sun grows into a valuable resource as it illuminates the solar panels laid across the flat roof and which power the space. The windowless vertical tower at the side of the building, which encloses the stairs connecting the five floors, is set in plaster, an inexpensive and common material on the island. As it enters from the bottom entrance, wind is channeled upwards through it and used to refresh the various floors before exiting at the seam – another recurring practice in Cabo Verdean structures.

Reflecting this structural hybridity, the building’s function is widely versatile, bringing together cultural, residential and hospitality spaces. While the bottom floor houses a gallery space, open to local cultural events, the upper floors welcome a diversity of inhabitants, permanent residents and temporary travelers alike. Coming together in the interior courtyard, where a communal exterior kitchen and long benches are towered by the lush balconies, all occupants gather in this sheltered space, tucked away from the street, yet deeply connected to it. At the Casa d’Poço, public and private communicate as do nature and culture, all hailing their profound Cabo Verdean identity as cultivating a profound sense of community.

Describing the project, Heim Balp Architekten co-founding architect Michael Heim explains:

“Both in its aesthetics and in its function, the Casa d’Poço is rooted in the context which surrounds it – a widely versatile climate; a bountiful nature; a vibrant culture; all in all, a land blessed with an endless wealth. By referencing and building on these assets, the design not only celebrates, but also (re)connects locals and visitors with Cabo Verde’s nature and culture, with its identity, ultimately fostering a deep-seated sense of belonging, pride, and community.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Heim Balp Architekten:
Heim Balp Architekten is a Berlin-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 2006 by Michael Heim and Pietro Balp. Influenced by its founders’ individual experiences of 1990s Berlin, the practice’s vision is rooted in the notion of architecture as social incubator. With projects across Europe from Berlin to Barcelona and Milan, their designs range from residential and cultural projects to commercial and work environments.

With teams in Madrid and Milan, the studio has engaged in over 150 European and global projects. Recently completed projects include Carrer de la Diputació and Carrer de Nàpols, Barcelona, Spain (residential/hospitality); Lindower Straße, Berlin, Germany (mixed-use); Casa d’Poço, Mindelo, Cabo Verde (hospitality); the MCE Production Facility, Timisoara, Romania (commercial/industrial); and Gutshof Güldenhof, Stechlin, Germany (cultural).

heimbalp.com

Project Information:
Project Name: Casa d’Poço
Location: Rua Lopes da Silva Guine-Bissau, Mindelo, Cabo Verde (São Vicente)
Completion Date: 2021
Type: Mixed-use (residential; cultural; hospitality)
Area: 580 m2
Project Team: Michael Heim, Pietro Balp, Lia Janela, Matteo Rossi, Lisa Desager

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Fine Arts Paris | 2021 Fair Highlights

November 9, 2021

The Art Fair returns for its fifth edition with new disciplines including non-western artistic scenes scenography by Jacques Garcia and the annual off-site Parisian fine arts week

November 6—11, 2021 | Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
Opening Preview: Friday, November 5 | 2—10PM

*Image credit. Left. Maurice Estève (1904—2001),* Untitled *[signed and dated lower right Estève 70].* *Watercolor and grease pencil on paper, 50 x 43.5 cm. Courtesy of Brame & Lorenceau. Right. Hei Tiki Maori nephrite pendant, New Zealand, 18th century. H: 9.5 cm. Courtesy of Patrick & Ondine Mestdagh.*

October 26, 2021 (Paris, France) – From November 6—11, 2021, Fine Arts Paris – the Paris-based specialist art fair dedicated to the fine arts from Antiquity to modern times – returns for a fifth edition in its emblematic venue, the Carrousel du Louvre. The premier destination for fine arts in Paris, the fair will once more bring together the most prominent dealers in their fields. A reunion of some 60 exhibitors, and alongside its returning participants – Steinitz, Xavier Eeckhout, and Marianne Rosenberg – the fair will be hosting 21 new dealers among which De Jonckheere, Christian Deydier, Robilant + Voena, Tanakaya, Patrick & Ondine Mestdagh, Laocoon Gallery & W. Apolloni, as well as jewelers Véronique Bamps and Walid Akkad.

This expanded edition will present an expert selection of painting, drawing, and sculpture, alongside new disciplines including fine jewelry, rare books, and for the first time, non-Western art scenes; a curated scenography by acclaimed French interior designer Jacques Garcia; and the annual Fine Arts Week, in collaboration with notable museums and institutions across Paris.

THE PARISIAN ART FAIR FOR OLD MASTERS
Old Master paintings are one of the best-represented segments at Fine Art Paris. The highlights this year include the first ever market appearance of Frans Francken the Younger’s The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite (circa 1607) presented by Galerie De Jonckheere (Geneva); Galerie G. Sarti (Paris)’s triptych by Simone di Filippo, precious testimony to the training of this major figure in Bolognese painting of the second half of the 14th century; a noteworthy feminist painting by Marguerite Gérard, witness to the gradual emancipation of women throughout the 18th century, at Galerie Eric Coatalem (Paris); a collection of Flemish paintings from the 16th through the 18th century for Florence de Voldère (Paris)’s first presentation at the fair – to cite but a few notable displays among which those of F. Baulme Fine Arts (Paris); Didier Aaron (Paris); Galerie Terrades (Paris); Talabardon & Gautier (Paris); and more.

SCULPTURE AT FINE ARTS PARIS
Old and Modern sculpture alike have repeatedly made their mark at Fine Arts Paris. Joining for the first time this year are prominent dealers Laocoon Gallery & W. Apolloni (London, Rome) and Robilant + Voena (London, et al.), the latter with a curated selection bringing together 19th-century painting and sculpture. Galerie Malaquais (Paris) will present an exceptional set of 15 sculptures by Aristide Maillol – the result of a 15-year-long dive into the work produced by the trio he formed with dealer Ambroise Vollard and bronze founder Florentin Godard; a dedicated selection of works by Roger Godchaux at Xavier Eeeckhout (Paris), marking the publication of the very first catalogue raisonné dedicated to this once marginal, now rediscovered sculptor; alongside the booths of Univers du Bronze (Paris); Lancz Gallery (Brussels); and Galerie Sismann (Paris).

*Image credit. Left. Aristide Maillol (1861—1944),* Pendulum, *known as* The Two Sisters, before 1902. Bronze, sand cast, 49 x 42 x 21 cm. Provenance: former collection of Dr. Isabel Beaumont, New York. Photography by Frédéric Fontenoy. Courtesy of Galerie Malaquais. Right. Chinese porcelain pot-pourri vase, chiseled and gilded bronze dragon mount of the Louis XV period, circa 1745—1750. Height: 22.5 cm. Courtesy of Pascal Izarn.

INTO THE 19TH CENTURY
Fine Arts Paris will once again showcase the grandeur of the 19th century through remarkable presentations from De Bayser (Paris), with an in situ portrait by Jean-Léon Gérôme; a dive into the long-decried world of the demi-mondaines through the eyes of Henri Gervex at Galerie Charvet (Paris); an in-depth study of light and color by Alfred Dehodencq shown by Edouard Ambroselli (Paris); alongside Fabienne Fiacre (Paris) and first-time participant Paul Prouté (Paris).

REVIEWING MODERN ART
Completing its far-reaching overview of the fine arts, Fine Arts Paris also dedicates a focus to Modern Art – this year, as shown by specialist dealers Brame & Lorenceau (Paris) with works by Hans Hartung (1904—1989); Galerie de la Présidence (Paris) through Sonia Delaunay (1885—1979) and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908—1992); Galerie Seine 55 (Paris) with Pierre Soulages (1919); Ditesheim & Maffei (Neufchâtel); Rosenberg & Co (New York); Galerie Laurentin (Paris, Brussels); to cite only a few.

APPROACHING THE DECORATIVE ARTS
Returning this year is Antoine Béchet (Paris), the widely considered specialist in old picture frames, alongside Royal Provenance (Paris), with a rare presentation of 1812 Sèvres porcelain plate crafted for Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte’s personal dinner service. Also participating are first-time exhibitors Galleria Dei Coronari (Rome) and Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz (Paris, New York), leading international specialist in antique wallpapers.

JEWELRY MAKES ITS DEBUT AT FINE ARTS PARIS
This year’s edition brings forth new disciplines, among which fine jewelry, represented by three prominent, widely distinct profiles, who nevertheless share the understanding of jewelry as a form of art. While Véronique Bamps (Monaco) presents some of the rarest antique jewelry on the market, Walid Akkad (Paris) demonstrates his expertise in jewelry as a craft which he follows from the drawing and modeling to the sculpting, treating his pieces as he would sculptures. Frédérique Mattei (Paris)’s “sculptures to wear” will complete this selection, harmoniously bringing together civilizations, eras, and materials alike to construct wearable universes of her own.

*Image credit. Left. 19th-century Bohemian crystal, Himalayan rock crystal, rare zoomorphic pearls from Colombia called* tumbaga. *Courtesy of Frédérique Mattei. Right. Kitagawa Utamaro (1753—1806),* Kinuta no Tamagawa [The Kinuta Crystal River], *Kansei 7-8 (1795—96). Oban tate format print, 36.6 x 25 cm. Courtesy of Tanakaya.*

LOOKING TO NON-WESTERN ART SCENES
The fair is delighted to introduce for the first time non-Western artistic scenes, as represented by three reputed European dealers. Looking to East Asia, Paris-based Tanakaya will present a selection of prints by some of the greatest Japanese drawers of the 18th through to the 20th centuries while Galerie Christian Deydier (Paris) will showcase an exceptional Chinese bronze from the 18th century BC. Mixing pieces from four continents, Patrick & Ondine Mestdagh (Brussels) will expand a cabinet d’amateurs, with pieces ranging from pendants to furniture.

SCENOGRAPHY
Complementing its outstanding selection of exhibitors, Fine Arts Paris invites visitors to immerse in the world of the fine arts. Acclaimed French interior designer and decorator Jacques Garcia has been commissioned for the fair’s scenography – bringing his sober and elegant touch to the Carrousel du Louvre’s entrance under the notable glass pyramid of the Louvre. Rooting his design in the history of the site, he takes inspiration from the 14th-century defense system revealed when the Carrousel was first built, bringing forth a both oneiric and theatrical contemporary atmosphere involving 14 mineral and vegetal elements subtly dispersed across the space.

SYMPOSIUMS
In parallel with the fair, two scientific symposiums will take place at the Petit Palais. The first will address Watteau and his entourage, marking the 300th anniversary of the death of this central figure in 18th-century French art. The other will delve into the research conducted by Geneviève Bresc-Bautier into 16th- and 17th-century sculpture, in collaboration with Sophie Jugie, Director of the Louvre Sculpture Department.

FINE ARTS WEEK
First launched in 2018, Fine Arts Paris will once again hail the Semaine des Beaux-Arts, Fine Arts Week, an off-site itinerary organized in partnership with over 20 leading institutions and museums across Paris and its region, among which the Musée du Louvre, Maison Victor Hugo, Musée Condé, Musée de l’Armée, the Château de Fontainebleau, and the Emile Hermès Collection.

ATTENDING THE FAIR ONLINE
Finally, and after a widely successful launch in 2020 with over 20,000 visitors, Fine Arts Paris Online will for a second time be hosted on the fair’s website, facilitating connectivity between dealers and visitors unable to attend the physical fair.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Fine Arts Paris:
Established in 2017 by the founders of Salon du dessin, Fine Arts Paris is the Paris-based specialist art fair dedicated to the fine arts from Antiquity to modern times. Following a first edition at the Palais Brongniart, Paris, which brought together 34 exhibitors of painting, drawing and sculpture, the fair moved to the Carrousel du Louvre, its emblematic venue since then, welcoming 46 exhibitors and gradually opening up to other specialties, including archaeology and tapestries. In 2018, Fine Arts Paris launched the off-site event Fine Arts Week, held at the same time as the fair, in partnership with 20 Parisian museums and institutions. While the 2020 health crisis and subsequent lockdown led to the cancellation of that year’s physical edition, Fine Arts Paris Online, presented as a replacement for the first time, gathered 55 exhibitors, hailing over 20,000 visitors.

Fine Arts Paris’s fifth edition will take place from November 6—11, 2021, at the Carrousel du Louvre and online.

Carrousel du Louvre | 99 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
www.fineart-paris.com

Opening Preview (by invitation only)
Friday, November 5 | 2—10PM

Admission Fee | 15 €/7.5 € (for students and groups)

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AFIKARIS Gallery Engages on Environmental Challenges as Angolan Artist Cristiano Mangovo Questions the Relation Between Human and Nature

October 20, 2021

*Cristiano Mangovo,* Dragon Vs Mwana Mpwo, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 135 x 200 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.

Presented from November 6—December 7, 2021, Cristiano Mangovo’s first solo show in France, Humano e a Natureza, brings together a new series of paintings probing the long-accepted domination of humans over nature.

November 6–December 7, 2021

October 20, 2021 (Paris, France) – A platform for its artists to explore political and socioeconomic dynamics and questionings – from Africa’s pervasive mining industry through the work of Jean David Nkot (Human@Condition, May 29—July 7, 2021) to the deep-seated cultural practice of hairstyling in Cameroon with Ajarb Bernard Ategwa’s Kwata Saloon (August 28—September 28, 2021) – AFIKARIS Gallery engages with ongoing environmental challenges with the first solo show in France of critically-acclaimed Angolan artist Cristiano Mangovo. On view from November 6—December 7, 2021, Humano e a Natureza brings to bear the dominant relation of humans over nature, with a selection of a dozen all-new works from his eponymous series, among which large-scale 2 x 2-meter canvases, as the artist advances the possibility of a balanced ecological world.

An established multimedia artist, Cristiano Mangovo (b. 1982, Luanda, Angola) turns to figuration for its ability to convey messages. In his canvases, Mangovo leaves free reign to his imagination – playing with reality, his brush is explosive and alive as he breeds new, composite beings, hybrid assemblages of human, animal and vegetable. Forms emerge from the scattered bodies, while ties, sleeves, and pants dress the randomly combined limbs. As viewers attempt to make sense of what they see, a diffuse yet perceptible balance emanates from the fantastical creatures, suggesting a raw, elementary, and organic harmony between men and nature.

In his large-scale canvas, Domination (2021), Cristiano Mangovo boldly states his intent, setting the tone for the works to follow. Voicing a subtle despondency, he points to humans’ position of domination over their natural surroundings, long taken for granted, and one that has continuously upset a broader earthly equilibrium. Rooted in the present reality, his works ring particularly true, and fierce, in light of prevailing discourses on accelerating climate change and of a pandemic that has plagued humanity for the past two years – allowing nature to faintly reclaim its place. Mangovo’s creatures, emerging from the chaos, exert a lively, almost festive movement. Seemingly grotesque, they take on unexpectedly hopeful, cheerful undertones as they come to suggest a rebirth, a new balance, where men and nature peacefully coexist.

*Cristiano Mangovo, Domination, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.*

Punctuated through his canvases, the motif of the “double mouth” acts as a lieu commun in his work. Calling to environment reflections’ political dimension, it finds its roots in the regime led by José Eduardo dos Santos, president of Angola –Mangovo’s homeland – from 1979 to 2017. Condemning an unsaid dictatorial regime where public opinion was strictly controlled, Mangovo uses his two-mouthed characters as the vocal opposants of this censorship, freeing them from lasting repression. At once pamphlets and aspirational sermons, his canvases turn Mangovo from artist to messenger, conferring his art with the power to fight ignorance and raise awareness. Playfully and stingingly revisiting visual idioms and daily life situations to grasp his viewers’ attention, Mangovo’s canvases exude sarcasm and critique. In Dragon vs Mwana Mpwo (2021), he plainly refers to the Chinese agribusiness’s implementation throughout Africa as a means to denounce the ways in which economic and political stakes often overule environmental concerns. Pointing to the lost land and natural resources, relinquished for transitory and futile financial profit, Mangovo’s stance is one of discernment and indignation, a cutting criticism on the exploitation of a nature which endlessly aspires to live in harmony with humans, and which political claims are pushing farther and farther away.

By confronting his viewers with these realities, Mangovo challenges them, and societies at large: why do humans have the power of life or death over nature, over other species – and do they? Himself brought to address these behaviors, he responds:

“I continuously question myself on the way humans claim and display their superiority over other living creatures. This thought has seeped through my work for a certain amount of time now, as I seek to integrate and express the emotions that other living beings could feel. Doing so requires what might seem like a dive into the imaginary, when it is in fact a simple, very real change of perspective – one that asks that we consider any form of life as having its own value, one to be respected.”

Ultimately, if Humano e a Natureza addresses ongoing challenges posed by the environment, Mangovo’s brushes point specifically at common human understandings and actions, inviting his viewers to adopt a repairing rationale, one anchored in the formation of a new harmony.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Cristiano Mangovo:
Cristiano Mangovo (b. 1982, Luanda, Angola) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and lives in Lisbon. As a child, he immigrated from his homeland of Angola to the Democratic Republic of Congo, living there as a refugee. There, he cultivated his interest in art, graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Kinshasa.

Through the various techniques and materials he uses, ranging from Impressionist to Surrealist motifs, Mangovo has made his stroke and his artistic line unmistakable, distinguishing himself within the contemporary African art scene.

His large acrylic on canvas works display hybrid creatures on monochrome backgrounds. If his work is figurative, he proposes a very personal universe infused with the messages he aims to convey. He works around the five main and interconnected topics of women’s rights, contemporary consumerism of the new neoliberal society, the protection of humans and nature, and equality. He constantly renews these themes, adopting a different angle and expanding perceptions onto it.

Mangovo has received early and continuous recognition for his work, with over 50 group and solo exhibitions and art fair presentations. He has also participated in several residencies such as that of the Cité internationale des arts in Paris and, most recently, Black Rock Senegal in Dakar.

About AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris:
Founded in 2018 by Florian Azzopardi, AFIKARIS Gallery started as an online platform and showroom specialized in the work of both emerging and established artists from African and its diaspora, before opening a dedicated Paris-based gallery space in 2021. Engaged in promoting cross cultural and disciplinary exchange, AFIKARIS acts as a platform for artists to engage with the wider public. A mirror onto and space for reflection on the contemporary African art scene, it provides artists with a space to address the topical local and international issues at the heart of their art.

AFIKARIS’s curated program includes group and solo exhibitions; art fairs; publications; as well as institutional partnerships.

Humano e a Natureza | November 6—December 7, 2021
AFIKARIS Gallery
38 rue Quincampoix
75004 Paris, France
info@afikaris.com
www.afikaris.com

Current and upcoming presentations:
Group show: Jean David Nkot, Cristiano Mangovo, Ousmane Niang, Marc Posso
AKAA Paris | Carreau du Temple, Paris
November 12—14, 2021

Groupshow: Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Jean David Nkot, Cristiano Mangovo
Untitled Art Miami Beach | Miami Beach, Miami
November 29—December 4, 2021

Eldorado | A solo exhibition of Omar Mahfoudi
AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris
December 11, 2021—January 11, 2022

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Fine Arts Paris 2021 Returns to the Historical Carrousel du Louvre With an Expanded Format Featuring New Disciplines From Fine Jewelry to Non-Western Artistic Scenes

October 8, 2021

From November 6—11, 2021, the Paris-based specialist art fair dedicated to the fine arts from Antiquity to modern times returns for a fifth edition to its emblematic Paris venue, the historical Carrousel du Louvre.

A premier destination and internationally acclaimed gathering for the most prominent dealers in their fields, the fair will present an expert selection of painting, drawing and sculpture from ancient times and Old Masters to the 20th century, alongside new disciplines ranging from fine jewelry and rare books to non-Western art scenes – on view off- and online.

November 6—11, 2021 | Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
Opening Preview: Friday, November 5 | 2—10PM

*Image credit. View of the Galerie Michel Descours booth, Fine Arts Paris 2019. Photography by Tanguy de Montesson. Courtesy of Fine Arts Paris.*

October 8, 2021 (Paris, France) – Fine Arts Paris is pleased to announce its fifth edition as it returns to its emblematic Parisian venue, the Carrousel du Louvre, from November 6—11, 2021. In the five years since its founding by the organizers of the reputed Salon du dessin, Fine Arts Paris has established itself as Paris’s leading specialist art fair dedicated to the fine arts from Antiquity to modern times.

This year brings forth an expanded version of the fair, bringing together some 60 exhibitors, including 17 first-time participants, presenting an expert selection of painting, drawing, and sculpture from ancient times and Old Masters to the 20th century, alongside new disciplines ranging from fine jewelry to rare books, and for the first time, non-Western art scenes including Asia and the Pacific.

The premier destination for fine arts in Paris, the fair will once more bring together the most prominent dealers in their fields, with highlights this year including a unique 12th-14th-century BC jia-shaped vase from the Shang dynasty, presented by Galerie Christian Deydier; a triptych by Simone di Filippo, presented by Galerie G. Sarti, precious testimony to the training of this major figure in Bolognese painting of the second half of the 14th century; a noteworthy feminist painting by Marguerite Gérard, witness to the gradual emancipation of women throughout the 18th century, at Galerie Eric Coatalem; in tandem with a remarkable selection of sculptures and both antique and contemporary jewels. Modern art enthusiasts will also encounter works by Pierre Soulages (Galerie Seine 55); Hans Hartung (Brame & Lorenceau); Sonia Delaunay and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (Galerie de la Présidence); to cite only a few.

A highlight this year, acclaimed French interior designer and decorator Jacques Garcia has been commissioned for the fair’s scenography – bringing his sober and elegant touch to the Carrousel du Louvre’s entrance under the notable glass pyramid of the Louvre. Rooting his design in the history of the site, he takes inspiration from the 14th-century defense system revealed when the Carrousel was first built, bringing forth a both oneiric and theatrical contemporary atmosphere involving 14 mineral and vegetal elements subtly dispersed across the space.

First launched in 2018, Fine Arts Paris will once again hail the Semaine des Beaux-Arts, Fine Arts Week, an off-site itinerary organized in partnership with over 20 leading institutions and museums across Paris and its region, among which the Maison Victor Hugo, Musée Condé, Musée de l’Armée, the Château de Fontainebleau, the Emile Hermès Collection, and – a key participants in the program – Paris’s world-renowned School of Fine Arts, the Beaux-Arts.

In parallel with the fair, two scientific symposiums will take place at the Petit Palais. The first will address Watteau and his entourage, marking the 300th anniversary of the death of this central figure in 18th-century French art. The other will delve into the research conducted by Geneviève Bresc-Bautier into 16th- and 17th-century sculpture, in collaboration with Sophie Jugie, Director of the Louvre Sculpture Department.

Finally, and after a widely successful launch in 2020 with over 20,000 visitors, Fine Arts Paris Online will once again be hosted on the fair’s website, facilitating connectivity between dealers and visitors unable to attend the physical fair.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Fine Arts Paris:
Established in 2017 by the founders of Salon du dessin, Fine Arts Paris is the Paris-based specialist art fair dedicated to the fine arts from Antiquity to modern times. Following a first edition at the Palais Brongniart, Paris, which brought together 34 exhibitors of painting, drawing and sculpture, the fair moved to the Carrousel du Louvre, its emblematic venue since then, welcoming 46 exhibitors and gradually opening up to other specialties, including archaeology and tapestries. In 2018, Fine Arts Paris launched the off-site event Fine Arts Week, held at the same time as the fair, in partnership with 20 Parisian museums and institutions. While the 2020 health crisis and subsequent lockdown led to the cancellation of that year’s physical edition, Fine Arts Paris Online, presented as a replacement for the first time, gathered 55 exhibitors, hailing over 20,000 visitors.

Fine Arts Paris’s fifth edition will take place from November 6—11, 2021, at the Carrousel du Louvre and online.

Carrousel du Louvre | 99 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
www.fineart-paris.com

Opening Preview (by invitation only)
Friday, November 5 | 2—10PM

Admission Fee | 15 €/7.5 € (for students and groups)

First time participants appear with a *.

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The Nomadic Art Gallery Opens in Belgium With the First of a Series of Exhibitions Dedicated to the Contemporary New Zealand Art Scene

October 7, 2021

Inaugurating its very first gallery space in Leuven, Belgium, The Nomadic Art Gallery challenges traditional gallery models by setting forth a new format, alternating an in-situ immersion within an underrepresented art scene with a transitional gallery space in Europe shedding light onto that scene.

Opening on October 22, 2021, HOP HIP and Something Possible usher in a series of off- and online exhibitions dedicated to the gallery’s first focus on the New Zealand art scene set in dialogue with European artists, showcasing emerging and established NZ artists Philip Trusttum, Ahsin Ahsin, Marcus Hipa, and Kim Pieters.

HOP HIP | October 22 – November 19, 2021
Something Possible | October 22 – December 5, 2021

Installation view of HOP HIP, The Nomadic Art Gallery. With works: Philip Trusttum, Gnomus, 2003. Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 251 x 233 cm. Photography by Elena Pavlyukova. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery. Dany Tulkens, Een vriend maken, 2020… — *Installation view of* HOP HIP, *The Nomadic Art Gallery. With works: Philip Trusttum,* Gnomus, *2003. Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 251 x 233 cm. Photography by Elena Pavlyukova.* *Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery. Dany Tulkens,* Een vriend maken, *2020. Bronze, 76 x 47 x 56 cm.* *Photography by Elena Pavlyukova.* *Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery.*

October 7, 2021 (Leuven, Belgium) – Marking its move from a mobile public art and research project, The Nomadic Art Gallery, founded in 2020 by Arthur Buerms and long-time partner Gie, unveils its very first transitional gallery space in Leuven, Belgium.

Building on a cyclical model rooted in the notion of nomadism, the initiative sets forth a new gallery model, which unfolds through two alternating phases. The first is an in-situ immersion within an underrepresented art scene, during which Arthur and Gie invest a mobile vehicle to conduct research in the given location, the latter ultimately becoming a public art project. The second phase is set in a transitional gallery space – a temporary location in Europe which changes with each showcased art scene and where the duo initiates a dialogue between their research and the European contemporary art scene, through a program of both physical and online exhibitions.

Opening on October 22, 2021, the gallery presents its inaugural focus on the established and emerging New Zealand art scene, following Arthur and Gie’s investigation into New Zealand’s artistic production throughout 2020. The first of a series of thematic exhibitions, off- and online, to take place over the coming months, HOP HIP showcases New Zealand artists Philip Trusttum (b. 1940, New Zealand), Ahsin Ahsin (b. 1983, Cook Island), and Marcus Hipa (b. 1980, Niue Island) in dialogue with Dany Tulkens (b. 1953, Belgium), while the online exhibition simultaneously on view Something Possible offers a comprehensive digital survey of longstanding New Zealand artist Kim Pieters (b. 1959, New Zealand)’s oeuvre over the last decade.

Left. Philip Trusttum, Baba Yaga’s Hut, 2003. Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 182 x 220 cm. Photography by Elena Pavlyukova. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery. Right. Marcus Hipa, Tanu, 2021. Marker and acrylic on cardboard (framed), 99.2 x 70.3 cm… — *Left. Philip Trusttum,* Baba Yaga’s Hut, *2003. Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 182 x 220 cm.* *Photography by Elena Pavlyukova.* *Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery. Right. Marcus Hipa,* Tanu, 2021. Marker and acrylic on cardboard (framed), 99.2 x 70.3 cm. Photography by Elena Pavlyukova. *Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery.*

The inauguration of The Nomadic Art Gallery’s new space is rooted in its story, one which cannot be separated from that of its founders. With a shared passion for exploring, and pushing, the boundaries of art, Arthur and Gie initiated The Nomadic Art Gallery on the notion that art evolves with its context – as do how, and by whom, it is perceived.

In early 2020, turning their attention towards a seldom presented New Zealand art scene and to how their project could contribute in shedding light onto it, in particular to Western audiences, they set off for New Zealand. Following a fortuitous encounter with Auckland-based art collector, trustee of New Zealand’s reputed Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, and ongoing supporter of their project Kent Gardner, what started as a converted truck quickly turned into a mobile art gallery, in which the duo lived and exhibited for a year. The pro bono, crowdfunded curatorial project itself, based on its temporary life cycle, unfolded as 16 exhibitions across 7 locations, as Arthur and Gie travelled 36,000 kilometers across the country, involving over 200 local artists, in constant interaction with their expanding public.

In 2021, with a year of discoveries behind them, Arthur and Gie returned to Europe, where they proceeded to the second part of The Nomadic Art Gallery’s New Zealand chapter – the first of, what they had now understood, many cyclical focuses onto rarely discussed art scenes across the world.

HOP HIP brings together New Zealand artists Philip Trusttum, Ahsin Ahsin, and Marcus Hipa in tandem with Belgian sculptor Dany Tulkens, as they explore the wavering tension between music and visual art. As visitors circulate the four different gallery spaces in the show, they visually listen in turn to Baroque, Russian classical folk, experimental noise, vaporwave – and hip-hop. As the artists jointly dissect the rhythmic cadence inherent to artworks in light of musical genres, the gallery grows into a hybrid entity, announcing the deterritorialization of cultural and physical space.

A prominent drive in its conception, critically acclaimed New Zealand figurative expressionist artist Philip Trusttum lies at the heart of the exhibition. Music plays a fundamental inspirational part in his work, in turn emanating from it in a sound-to-sight back-and-forth present throughout his Pictures at the Exhibition series (2001—2004) as in his ongoing Selfies and Masks series. Referencing a remarkable diversity of influences, from Medieval illuminated manuscripts and Japanese woodwork prints to comic book motifs and indigenous African huts, his brushstrokes, fired by music, result in a kaleidoscopic choreography of line, pattern, and luminous colors.

While Ahsin Ahsin and Marcus Hipa build on inspiration from jazz, hip-hop and vaporwave in their ability to elicit a sense of community, calling to cultural authenticity and the more political dimension of their work, Trusttum’s work most resonates in opposite, yet complementary, tempo to that of Dany Tulkens. The palpable sarcasm in Trusttum’s work is channeled to Tulkens’s seemingly dark sculptures, shedding to light a concealed lightheartedness which only the differing musicality in the works could extract. Addressing this exchange between the two artists, Arthur and Gie explain:

“By offering a temporary snapshot onto a specific art scene at a given moment in time, The Nomadic Art Gallery acts a bridge between continents, a platform for New Zealand artists, in this first iteration, to share broadly the poorly known discourses that feed their creation – fragmented as they may be, all reclaiming their voice and identity on an international scale – all-the-while bringing to light new dimensions to seemingly understood European artists’ work.”

Left. Ahsin Ahsin, Light Lilac Series #1, 2021. Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 60.5 x 50.8 cm. Photography by Elena Pavlyukova. Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery. Right. Kim Pieters, Write, 2021. Mixed media on board, 60 x 60 cm. Courtesy of T… — *Left. Ahsin Ahsin,* Light Lilac Series #1, *2021. Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 60.5 x 50.8 cm. Photography by Elena Pavlyukova.* *Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery. Right. Kim Pieters,* Write, *2021. Mixed media on board, 60 x 60 cm*. *Courtesy of The Nomadic Art Gallery.*

In parallel to HOP HIP, the gallery extends an extensive online survey of self-defined “adaptive” and “nonrepresentational” New Zealand artist Kim Pieters. Her paintings, drawings, photographs, and moving-image soundscapes reflect her continuing experimentation within the broad artistic field, seeking to reveal the extravisual, the minute in the sound, sight, and touch. The works call to an in-between zone, where something is possible, yet all is suspended, in time and in space – a conceptual thread throughout the work of this celebrated artist, discovered only later in her career.

Closing the very first nomadic chapter of the past year, Arthur and Gie look ahead to the months and years to come:

“A transitional non-space, undefined in time, The Nomadic Art Gallery is at the border between the public and the private, at once art project and gallery space, with the aim of setting forth the potential for new gallery models to emerge – each unique, reflecting art’s inherently flexible, dynamic and diverse nature – and its ability to endlessly manifest itself in various formats, in various spaces, to various audiences.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About The Nomadic Art Gallery, Leuven, Belgium:
Founded in 2020 by Arthur Buerms and long-time partner Gie, The Nomadic Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery and public art and research project currently based in Leuven, Belgium.

Building on a cyclical model rooted in the notion of nomadism, the initiative unfolds through two alternating phases. The first is an in-situ immersion within an underrepresented art scene, during which Arthur and Gie invest a mobile vehicle to conduct research in the given location, the latter ultimately becoming a public art project.

The second phase is set in a transitional gallery space – a temporary location in Europe which changes with each showcased art scene and where the duo initiates a dialogue between their research and the European contemporary art scene, through a program of both physical and online exhibitions.

HOP HIP, group exhibition of Philip Trusttum, Ahsin Ahsin, Marcus Hipa, and Dany Tulkens | October 22—November 19, 2021
The Nomadic Art Gallery
Brusselsesteenweg 168
3020 Herent [near Leuven], Belgium

Something Possible, solo exhibition of Kim Pieters | October 22—December 5, 2021 [Digital Exhibition]

www.thenomadicartgallery.com
nomads@thenomadicartgallery.com
Instagram | @thenomadicgallery7
Facebook | @TheNomadicArtGallery

About Philip Trusttum:
Philip Trusttum (b. 1940, Raetihi, New Zealand) is a leading New Zealand figurative, expressionist artist. His works are usually large-scale and energetic, set on unstretched canvas. Trusttum’s work has largely been inspired by everyday life experiences often worked into a semi-abstract form, with his subject matter in turn ranging from landscapes to tennis, gardening to horses, and Japanese masks to portraits.

His vibrant, ever changing style places him somewhat outside current fashions, and has at times consigned Trusttum to the byways of New Zealand art history, a discourse formerly driven by cultural nationalism and now in thrall to opaque versions of postmodern theory that has been underwhelmed by expressive accounts of the personal.

In 2000, he became the second only New Zealand artist to be awarded the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and in 2021, was appointed Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honors for his longstanding services to art. His work has since been shown internationally – including Edinburgh, Hobart, New York, and Sydney – and can be found in all public galleries across New Zealand.

About Ahsin Ahsin:
Ahsin Ahsin (b. 1983) is a Cook Island-born artist currently living in Hamilton. A graduate from the Waikato Institute of Technology, he later refined his style, gradually crafting his aesthetic trademark(s), mostly immortalized as murals throughout New Zealand. His works reveal a nostalgic and at times dreamlike engagement with popular entertainment and technology of previous decades.

Visually, Ahsin incorporates early internet imagery, late 1990s web graphics, street art, reptiles, glitch, 3D-rendered objects, unnatural hues, science fiction, and cartoons. Rooted in his love of 1980-90's fictional movies and anime, Ahsin takes his viewers to the deep unfolding grounds of our collective imagination, where extra-terrestrial creatures exist by means of graffiti gestures.

Ahsin has made a name for himself through numerous exhibitions across New Zealand and Australia, including the Tauranga Art Gallery and Tautai Centre for Pacific Art, Auckland, among others.

About Marcus Hipa:
Marcus Hipa (b. 1980) is a Niuean artist born and raised in Alofi, Niue Island, and currently living and working in New Zealand. Drawing, painting, and carving are only some of the mediums he utilizes to explore and share insights onto his people’s history and culture.

His distinct convoluted and interlocked lines merge into one another, creating an image that seemingly continuously expands, yet whose boundless energy is kept in check by the “pure” white frame of his chosen medium. Contrast is constantly at play, layered up in black and outlined in vivid colors. The lines, produced in graffiti style, resemble science fiction-like figures, all-the-while sharing the subtle markers of his people’s history, culture, and traditions.

Addressing the need, and challenges, to assimilate when relocating to a foreign place, Hipa outlines the often-abrasive reality of taking on a new environment’s (visual) language. His art becomes a mirror of the interplay between old and new, assimilated and learnt, as references to his cultural background punctuate the works. Hipa celebrates shared values, traditions, and the sense of community, while shedding light on the social and political issues affecting the Niuean people in the Pacific region, and in particular in Aotearoa. Ultimately, his lines can be read as universal letters telling complex stories of identity and loss, reclamation of culture and power dynamics, and representation.

Hipa’s work has been shown across the Auckland region in numerous group shows, with his first solo show at The Upstairs Gallery, Auckland, in 2021.

About Kim Pieters:
Kim Pieters (b. 1959, Rotorua, New Zealand) lives and works in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her artistic practice could be described as emergent, adaptive, and nonlinear. A predominantly nonrepresentational painter, she also produces photographs, experimental film, writing, and music.

Pieters tends to build her work, regardless of its genre, around two or more distinct nuclei – for example, image and text – using the juxtaposition of these autonomous yet resonant realms to create a clearing, void of expectations and norms. Inherent to this, she sheds light onto an ethical dimension involved in shared societal responsibilities, and which often prevent the nurturing of individual thought.

Her notable oeuvre, crafted over the past four decades, is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki, Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna O Waiwhetu, Victoria University Collection and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

About Dany Tulkens:
Dany Tulkens (b. 1953, Leuven, Belgium), sculptor from the school of Koenraad Tinel and peer of Roland Rens, is most noted for his singular, demanding technique, through which he knocks and welds together bronze and razor-sharp quips with informed and skilled craftsmanship.

Tulkens scrutinizes and magnifies the peculiarities of man, allowing his sculptures to seemingly bathe in an atmosphere of surrealism. Pointing to the sometimes-unimaginable smallness of the human being, he probes the mysteries that surround him, as sarcasm, irony, and cynicism subtly circulate through the works, all-the-while carried by a soft light-heartedness. The world evoked by the artist is a universal world, one determined neither by time nor by space – and one somewhat akin to the shared sense of alienation experienced when confronted with the microscopic image of a known object. Ultimately, all presence in his work, while fully sarcastic, exudes its own stoical descent towards nothingness, written into its shape, into its stance.

Tulkens’s work has been widely exhibited in public places, including for a large-scale sculpture commission on the Plein van de vriendschap-Setagaya in Leuven. He now mostly exhibits at regional level, with a recent exhibition at Verduyn Gallery, Wortegem-Petegem.

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1-54 London | AFIKARIS Gallery Presents the Works of Four Artists as They Ponder the Possibility of a Better World

October 4, 2021

1-54 London | AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris
14—17 October 2021
Preview: Thursday 14 October, 10AM—8PM
Somerset House | Strand, WC2R 1LA London

Above. Nana Yaw Oduro, If we play like this, we stand a chance, 2021 Photography. 67 x 100 cm, Edition of 4 + 2 AP. 40 x 60 cm, Edition of 8 + 2 AP. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery and the artist. Below, Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Jour de Loumo Baliii, 2021. Acrylic and posca on canvas. 180 x 120 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery and the artist. — *Above. Nana Yaw Oduro,* If we play like this, we stand a chance, *2021 Photography. 67 x 100 cm, Edition of 4 + 2 AP. 40 x 60 cm, Edition of 8 + 2 AP. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery and the artist. Below, Moustapha Baidi Oumarou,* Jour de Loumo Baliii, *2021. Acrylic and posca on canvas. 180 x 120 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery and the artist.*

October 4, 2021 (Paris, France) – On the occasion of the 1-54 art fair in London, Paris-based AFIKARIS Gallery unveils new works by artists Moustapha Baidi Oumarou (b.1997, Maroua, Cameroon), Salifou Lindou (b.1965, Doula, Cameroon), Omar Mahfoudi (b. 1981, Tangier, Morocco) and Nana Yaw Oduro (b. 1994, Accra, Ghana).

Under the title A Better World?, the dialogue between Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Salifou Lindou, Omar Mahfoudi and Nana Yaw Oduro unfolds as a reflection on recurring sociopolitical trends and thoughts, heightened during the time of the pandemic and resulting lockdown. Presented together, the artists join in a common, aspirational yet realistic call for hope and for a new departure in current times – all-the-while pointing to its limits.

Nana Yaw Oduro’s photographic series If we play like this, we stand a chance, presented alongside Moustapha Baidi Oumarou’s joyful and pure portraits, exude a sense of both yearning and hope – one which Omar Mahfoudi cultivates through his suspended rêverie as he embarks viewers in a spiritual exile. If his landscapes heave a dreamlike breath, the politicians depicted by Salifou Lindou question the possibility of a new world. Is it truly possible for circumstances to change when those who govern us do not change?

The pandemic transformed our vision of the world, pushing us to rethink the way in which we live, to change our habits to build a better future. At once a longing and a questioning, A Better World? calls on these reflections through the vision of four artists.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Moustapha Baidi Oumarou:
Moustapha Baidi Oumarou (b. 1997, Maroua, Cameroon) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and lives in Maroua. A self-taught artist, Baidi Oumarou describes himself as a “conscious and humanist painter.” This humanism shows through his paintings and drawings, in an attempt to relay what the forgotten and most vulnerable cannot express with words.

Most often laying out monochrome backgrounds and human shapes adorned with flowers, his colorful canvases, made in acrylic, translate the good within each of us. Naturally, his delicate and subtle outlines, immersed in a lush nature, evoke a moment of sharing, conviviality, or even introspection. By anonymizing his characters, his nameless yet deeply human shapes suggest a universal message of peace and humanity.

Baidi Oumarou’s work has been featured in notable international fairs such as Art Paris (Paris); 1-54 London (London); Investec Cape Town (Cape Town); and AKAA (Paris).

About Salifou Lindou:
Salifou Lindou (b. 1965, Douala, Cameroon) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and lives in Douala. A self-taught artist, Lindou is part of the former generations of Cameroonian artists now passing the torch to a new, globalized generation.

If Lindou deals with topical issues, his striving to oppose the vulnerability of the body is a recurring theme in his work. Internal as well as external fights, stirring individuals and society, arise under his pastels. On the paper as on the canvas, Lindou explores the complexity of human beings through scenes of daily life, fed with references to legends and classics, all-the-while rooted in modern painting.

Lindou’s work has been featured in numerous international fairs such as Art Paris (Paris); 1-54 London (London); 1-54 New York (New York); ARCO Madrid (Madrid); Art Paris (Paris); and exhibition in institutions including the National Museum of Yaounde (Yaounde); Institut des Cultures de l’Islam (Paris); Art Hub Copenhagen (Copenhagen).

About Omar Mafoudi:
Omar Mahfoudi (b.1981, Tangier, Morocco) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and lives in Paris. In his art, he reinvents and rewrites the history of human beings through emotions.

Mainly working with ink and acrylic, he plays with the movement of the matter created on the surface of the canvas. His oases, timeless territories bathed in a distant light and conducive to rêverie, are fed and enriched by eclectic influences, from Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado’s Amazonia series to the prints of Katsushika Hokusai, as the ambient gold brings to his imagery a perception of heat and mystery.

Mahfoudi’s work has been featured in a number of international fairs such as AKAA (Paris); 1-54 London (London); and ARCO (Madrid).

About Nana Yaw Oduro:
Nana Yaw Oduro (b.1994, Accra, Ghana) is a self-taught photographer based in Accra. His photographs act as fictional self-portraits in which his models are like actors, playing a biographical role.

The stories presented in Yaw Oduro’s photographs the photographs unfold as a poetic blend of his personal emotions, evident in the colors of his environments. The chromatic treatment structures his images, producing a tangible softness and harmony between shapes and colors, between man and nature, continuously underpinning the narrative.

His work is part of the collection of the Chazen Museum (Madison, USA).

About AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris:
Founded in 2018 by Florian Azzopardi, AFIKARIS Gallery started as an online platform and showroom specialized in the work of both emerging and established artists from African and its diaspora, before opening a dedicated Paris-based gallery space in 2021. Engaged in promoting cross cultural and disciplinary exchange, AFIKARIS acts as a platform for artists to engage with the wider public. A mirror onto and space for reflection on the contemporary African art scene, it provides artists with a space to address the topical local and international issues at the heart of their art.

AFIKARIS’s curated program includes group and solo exhibitions; art fairs; publications; as well as institutional partnerships.

Currently on view:

Un Monde Bleu | October 2—November 2, 2021
AFIKARIS Gallery
38 rue Quincampoix
75004 Paris, France
info@afikaris.com
www.afikaris.com

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AFIKARIS Gallery Goes Blue for Cameroonian Artist Moustapha Baidi Oumarou's First Solo Show in France

September 20, 2021

Left. Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Le trône invisible, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 180 x 120 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. Right. Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Cliché idéal, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 300 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. — *Left. Moustapha Baidi Oumarou,* Le trône invisible, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 180 x 120 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. Right. Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Cliché idéal, *2021. Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 300 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.*

Presented from October 2—November 2, 2021, Un Monde Bleu unveils a series of a dozen new paintings, bearing witness to Moustapha Baidi Oumarou's interpretative use of the color blue as the artist calls out a message of peace and harmony.

October 2–November 2, 2021

September 20, 2021 (Paris, France) – Having brought to light the works of Cameroonian artists Jean David Nkot (Human@Condition, May 29—July 7, 2021) and Ajarb Bernard Ategwa (Kwata Saloon, August 28—September 28, 2021), AFIKARIS Gallery unveils its third solo exhibition, a showcase of a dozen new works by emerging artist Moustapha Baidi Oumarou (b. 1997, Maroua, Cameroon). On view from October 2—November 2, 2021, Un Monde Bleu puts in perspective and revisits the use of the color blue in art, as the artist subtly addresses ongoing sociological and political issues, all-the-while conveying a sense of peace and harmony.

For “humanist painter” Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, blue evokes a dreamed, ideal world, in which the color, most often associated with peace, grows enshrined with a healing virtue. Eager to confer a defined purpose to his oeuvre – that of bringing people joy, inviting them to focus on the positive aspects of life – blue is the main support in his work. Mirroring the humanist approach that characterizes his overall artistic language, Baidi Oumarou communicates a message of joy, harmony, solidarity – and peace. The scenes of daily life that adorn his canvases, moments of calm in which his characters appear to be at a standstill, draw attention to the essence that brings them together, shining a light on notions of family, friendship, and togetherness. The flat, outlined, and monochrome surfaces turn away from any form of ornamentation, instead pointing to a simple, pure feeling that brings the seemingly distinct shapes harmoniously together.

Cliché idéal (2021) is the embodiment of this harmony. In this quiet family moment, the characters gather at the center of the canvas. Around them, a deep blue inundates the environment seemingly enclaving the group, yet perceptibly enveloping it instead. The characters, all but disturbed by their surroundings, turn peacefully to the viewer, as a feeling of warmth and togetherness slowly emanates from them. Revisiting a long tradition of family portraits, one embellished by representations of wealth, Baidi Oumarou’s stroke is definite, pure, as he turns the focus on the essence of his characters – the bonds that tie them together – rather than on their wealth. Stripped of their superfluous belongings, they exert a holistic sense of plenitude, one that extends beyond materiality.

*Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Ma bicyclette blanche 1, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 140 x 130 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.*

More than an enduring message, Un Monde Bleu is thought as a nod to the health situation the world has experienced and continues to experience since 2020. Wrapping AFIKARIS’s 130-m2 space in this very color blue, the exhibition space becomes a haven of peace, extending a reflection on our way of approaching others, one that has been significantly altered by the pandemic. With social distancing measures and the obligation to wear a mask still enduring, a widespread sense of fear, distrust in some cases, has been generated, thereby redefining social interactions. Particularly sensitive to these collateral effects, the artist subtly points to the inequalities emerging from the wide range of government responses to the pandemic, throughout Africa and on other continents, where restrictions, and the resulting seclusion, have proved tougher.

Circumstantial, common snapshots of life, his canvases do not only look back to a lost distanced past, rather carrying a message of hope that togetherness will follow from this passing moment of isolation. Through his faceless characters, anonymized yet universally recognizable, differences are erased: the markers of physical and social barriers are taken down, leaving space for individuals to emerge. An unsaid homage to the children in his city’s poorest neighborhoods, his art is an ode to people’s deep desire, and ability, to once again live in harmony. Aptly expressing these themes in Ma bicyclette blanche 1 (2021), Baidi Oumarou skillfully translates a sense of movement from a character that appears to stand still. In doing so, he instigates a notion of progress, of improvement, the potential and ability to move towards a better future.

Ultimately, Un Monde Bleu is not only the artist’s, but also his viewer’s, dreamed world – an ideal, shared universe where people forget their differences and live in harmony and peace.

In parallel to the exhibition, the work of Moustapha Baidi Oumarou will be showcased at the 1-54 contemporary African art fair in London, on view from October 12—17, 2021.

---

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Moustapha Baidi Oumarou:
Moustapha Baidi Oumarou (b. 1997, Maroua, Cameroon) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and lives in Maroua. A self-taught artist, Moustapha Baidi Oumarou describes himself as a “conscious and humanist painter.” This humanism shows through his paintings and drawings, in an attempt to relay what the forgotten and most vulnerable cannot express with words.

Most often laying out monochrome backgrounds and human shapes adorned with flowers, his colorful canvases, made in acrylic, translate the good within each of us. Naturally, his delicate and subtle outlines, immersed in a lush nature, evoke a moment of sharing, conviviality, or even introspection. By anonymizing his characters, his nameless yet deeply human shapes suggest a universal message of peace and humanity.

Moustapha Baidi Oumarou’s work has been featured in numerous international fairs such as Art Paris (Paris); 1-54 London (London); Investec Cape Town (Cape Town); and AKAA (Paris). Un Monde Bleu, presented at AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris, from October 2— November 2, 2021, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in France.

About AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris:
Founded in 2018 by Florian Azzopardi, AFIKARIS Gallery started as an online platform and showroom specialized in the work of both emerging and established artists from African and its diaspora, before opening a dedicated Paris-based gallery space in 2021. Engaged in promoting cross cultural and disciplinary exchange, AFIKARIS acts as a platform for artists to engage with the wider public. A mirror onto and space for reflection on the contemporary African art scene, it provides artists with a space to address the topical local and international issues at the heart of their art.

AFIKARIS’s curated program includes group and solo exhibitions; art fairs; publications; as well as institutional partnerships.

Un Monde Bleu | October 2—November 2, 2021
AFIKARIS Gallery
38 rue Quincampoix
75004 Paris, France
info@afikaris.com
www.afikaris.com

Current and upcoming presentations:

Group show: Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Salifou Lindou, Omar Mahfoudi, Nana Yaw Oduro
1-54 London | Somerset House, London
October 14—17, 2021

Group show: Jean David Nkot, Cristiano Mangovo, Ousmane Niang, Marc Posso
AKAA Paris | Carreau du Temple, Paris
November 12—14, 2021

Humano e A Natureza | A solo exhibition of Cristiano Mangovo
AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris
November 6—December 5, 2021

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New York-Based Designer Jonathan Hansen Unveils 'In the Clouds' Crystal Glassware Collection

September 15, 2021

Image credits: In the Clouds Collection, designed by Jonathan Hansen. Photography by Joseph Kramm. Courtesy of Jonathan Hansen. — *Image credits*: In the Clouds Collection, designed by Jonathan Hansen. Photography by Joseph Kramm. Courtesy of Jonathan Hansen.

The new handcrafted and engraved collection of Bohemian crystal explores the theme of the blue sky, conveying a sense of lightness and liberation within each piece.

September 15, 2021 (New York, United States) – Reputed New-York based designer Jonathan Hansen presents his first signature handcrafted and engraved crystal glassware collection, titled In the Clouds. Made by master craftsmen of the Bohemian crystal tradition in the Czech Republic, the collection features 10 hand-engraved glass pieces, ranging from wine goblets, water glasses, and tumblers to carefully sculpted carafes, available in both clear and tinted grey crystal. The images of the clouds are finely engraved in the material, each uniquely punctuating the skies of mouth blown crystal. Launching in Autumn 2021, the collection underlines the refinement and lightness in the materiality of Bohemian crystal, as Hansen once again brings a modern sensibility to traditional materials and fabrication methods.

Further nurturing his dialogue with master craftsmen from across Europe, having worked with the finest Limoges porcelain craftsmen and Italian marble carvers, Hansen deploys his artistic language in tandem with the master craftsmen that follow the Czech Republic’s centuries-old traditional crystal production. Cut, engraved, blown, and painted by hand, Bohemian crystal, hailing from the regions of Bohemia and Silesia since the late 16th century, has long been distinguished for the quality and beauty that has come to characterize its ateliers and schools, and the techniques passed on by them. In the Clouds is characterized by this finesse and the embodiment of its unique essence, as each piece in the collection, handmade, is slightly different – a tactility that can only be felt in the perfection and imperfection of this craft.

Moving from Limoges porcelain to glass, Hansen immerses himself once more in the atmospheric depth that he endowed upon his 2020 Ciels Bleus collection, conceived in collaboration with esteemed French design brand Marie Daâge. Returning to the theme of the blue sky, he further cultivates the notion of clearness, this time expressing it through both the concept and a material that inherently possesses this attribute. Hansen’s clear skies, pristinely blue on the delicate Limoges porcelain, embrace the full expanse of their meaning as they take on the transparent Bohemian glass. Hansen’s pieces exude a material clarity, evoking a boundless space and a fresh, contemplative lightness.

“Capturing in a transparent material a subject that is itself a mass of water drops, constantly moving and alive, was a big part of my idea behind the In the Clouds collection. The engravers were able to create a beautiful sense of movement through the varying engraving depths, and in combination with the refraction of light and transparency of the crystal, the clouds come to life.” – Jonathan Hansen

Through this collection, Hansen detaches his objects from their material constraints. Extending the perceived limits of crystal, he confers it with a new topography of its own. This Leitmotiv in the designer’s work is also perceptible in his ongoing SERIES. While the first iteration, Captum Biomorfe, set organic forms within the material restraints of a cast, using Calacatta marble and resin mounted on bronze, SERIES II: Eximo Biomorfe further probes the oppositional forces of captivity and freedom in static objects.

Though In the Clouds marks the first crystal glassware collection under his name, Hansen has been working with the material since 2009. He has built an extensive portfolio of glassware collections produced for leading designers and brands, including Thom Browne for Baccarat, Lisa Perry for Coca-Cola, and AERIN.

The In the Clouds collection is available for pre-order on leading design and fashion retailer Moda Operandi. Additional reputed international retailers including FARFECTH and Browns will follow in the Fall 2021.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Jonathan Hansen:
A contemporary creator with classical foundations, New York-based designer Jonathan Hansen has established his signature through collaborations with some of the leading names of fashion and furniture design. Building on his training in 18th- and 19th-century French, English and American furniture design, Hansen investigates the fragile equilibrium between functionality and abstraction that comes with each interaction between human and object. Placing the human body at the core of his work, he conceives each piece as a biomorphic being endowed with a subtle human essence.

Designing and fabricating objects for the past 20 years, he launched his product design firm Jonathan Hansen + Co. in 2010. Hansen has worked with leading global fashion designers and brands including Thom Browne, Lisa Perry, AERIN, Ralph Rucci, The HAAS BROTHERS, Marie Daâge, and L’OBJET, where he currently acts as Design Director.

In 2018, he debuted his independent design editions, SERIES I: Captum Biomorfe – the first of a continuous series of furniture design collections through which he addresses the ties between design, architecture, sculpture, and the human body. The series’ second iteration, titled SERIES II: Eximo Biomorfe, will be presented in 2022.

Hansen's design work has garnered academic and media attention alike. SERIES I was recently included in Karen Pearse’s Splendor of Marble: Marvelous Spaces by the Worlds Top Architects and Designers (Rizzoli, 2020), and his collections have been featured in The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Vogue, ELLE Decor, and Harper's Bazaar, among others.

jonathan-hansen.com

The In the Clouds collection is available for pre-order on leading design and fashion retailer Moda Operandi. Additional reputed international retailers including FARFECTH and Browns will follow in the Fall 2021.

Facebook | Instagram | @jonathandhansen @hansen.series

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