Month: June 2021

With international borders slowly opening up, we are eager to start visiting museums and art galleries again. We have compiled a list of our favorite exhibitions in the three leading art capitals in the world – New York, Paris and London.

Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine

The Jewish Museum, through July 11, 2021

This beautiful exhibition includes 150 works that explore how photography, graphic design, and popular magazines converged to transform American visual culture from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. These photographs, layouts and cover designs tell the story of the unmistakable aesthetic made popular by such magazines as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue and photographers such as Irving Penn, Gordon Parks and Lillian Bassman.

Cézanne Drawing

MoMA, through September 25, 2021

The French artist Cézanne was best known as a painter, but he actually produced his most radically original works on paper. This exhibition brings together more than 250 rarely shown works in pencil and mesmerizing watercolor made throughout his career. Seen all together, along with several of his important paintings, these works on paper reveal how drawing shaped his transformative modern vision.

Centre Pompidou x Jersey City

Breaking news… The Centre Pompidou just announced that they will open an outpost in Jersey City, NJ in 2024. The Pompidou will plan on showing work from its vast art collection while its original location in Paris undergoes a years-long restoration project. This new museum will be known as Centre Pompidou x Jersey City and will also organize talks, performances, screenings and more. Watch this space…

Bourse de Commerce

The eagerly awaited opening of the newest museum in Paris was finally realized on May 20^th when the Bourse de Commerce opened its doors. The historic 18^th century structure, which was the former stock exchange building, was transformed by the renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando. This museum was the brainchild of the French businessman and art collector Francois Pinault to showcase his vast art holdings known as the Pinault Collection. This contemporary art museum will showcase pieces from the Pinault Collection that includes over 10,000 works that offer a perspective on the art from 1960’s to present time. There is also a spectacular fresco restoration as well as artworks that have been specifically commissioned for the space.  One of the exhibitions is titled “In-Situ Works” (until Dec 31, 2021). Several artists created site-specific works inside and outside the museum that creates an intriguing dialogue between the architecture and the art it is exhibiting.

JR’s site-specific street art

JR is a French photographer and street artist. He started posting large black and white images printed on paper in the streets of Paris and now does monumental installations in public locations around the world. JR’s latest large-scale urban artwork is back where he started, in Paris. His large-scale photographs are collaged together revealing a breathtaking “split earth” beneath the Eiffel Tower. It is a head spinning installation that optically distorts reality giving the viewer a sense of a magical illusion. They can then create their own photograph of themselves peering over the cliffs or jumping across the abyss. It also has a dazzling effect even after a rainstorm. Located at Esplanade des droits de l’homme (Place du Trocadero) and will be taken down around June 20, 2021.

Mosaic street art by Ememem 

Another French artist is making his mark on the streets of Paris and beyond. Ememem, a Lyonnais artist is turning cracked pavements into art. He finds potholes and sidewalk cracks and fills them in with mosaics a process he calls “flacking” (which is a play on the French word “flaque” for puddle), as it feels like these mosaics fill the cracks and holes as organically as rainwater would. The colored glass mosaics create textures, colors and patterns that turn bleak, broken down areas into a beautiful urban landscape. He has left his mark in such cities as Lyon, Paris, Barcelona and Turin. He is currently part of a group exhibition, “Ceramics Now”, at the Galerie Italienne in Paris through July 17, 2021.

Follow him on Instagram @ememem.flacking or better yet, keep your eyes peeled to your local streets. Who knows where the next one will pop up!

The Clearing Grand Ménage

The art gallery, Clearing Gallery, has taken over an empty hôtel particular that dates from around 1728. This group show titled “Grand Ménage” is in a mansion that has been away from the public eye and uninhabited for the past 10 years.  Paintings and sculptures have been placed in each room and on each floor in a slightly haunting exhibition. While one will visit for the art exhibit, the abandoned mansion itself is also intriguing to view as you can see the original architecture, colors and wallpapers now in their decaying state. Located at 72 Rue de l’Université, Tues – Sat 10am-7pm and it will close on June 20, 2021.

Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life

The Design Museum, June 19 – September 5, 2021

After a blockbuster debut exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2019/20 this outstanding show is opening at the Design Museum in London. They have recreated some of her most famous interiors and have included many of her iconic furniture along with sketches, photographs, scrapbooks and prototypes. It is fascinating to see her creative process and this show gives her her rightful place in design history. This iconic French designer helped define the modern interior as her belief was that good design is for everyone.

JR: Eye to the World

Pace Gallery, through July 3, 2021

This exhibition brings together photographs from several bodies of JR’s work showcasing his unique view of humanity seen through his camera lens.

Note: this Pace Gallery exhibition coincides with the largest solo museum show to date at Saatchi Gallery

JR: Chronicles

Saatchi Gallery, through October 3, 2021

This exhibition features JR’s most iconic works from the past 15 years. This show first opened at The Brooklyn Museum in NYC in 2019 and was a blockbuster exhibition.

Many of us had to pivot in different ways during the pandemic but for New York-based French sculptor, Gaëlle Hintzy-Marcel, when she found out that the atelier where she had been working for almost 4 years would be closed for an unspecified period, she quickly had to change her way of working so that she could continue to sculpt out of her home. While she used to work mainly in bronze, pewter became her new medium along with resin, plaster and wood, as these allowed her to keep her hands involved throughout the entire process of creating her work. Strangely, the lockdown opened up new perspectives for Gaëlle, as she had always felt dispossessed of her work when a foundry was casting her bronze pieces.

Change is not new for Gaëlle. For the past 25 years, her sculptures have been influenced by the slightly nomadic life she has led. Born and raised in France, Gaëlle was introduced to working with her hands by her father, as she was helping him with odds and ends around the house. Thanks to him, she already felt comfortable with tools.

While working in Paris, she modeled in clay and plaster. She then lived for several years in Indonesia where she was introduced to bronze and developed her skills and honed her techniques. Her path soon took her to Russia where she concentrated on figurative work which plays so prominently a role in Russian culture.

But it was when she moved to Mumbai, India and, ironically, could not find an atelier to work in, she instead spent time in the practice of yoga which itself would open her up to new ways of expression in her artwork. These different cultures and encounters she made while abroad can be seen in her work both technically and philosophically.

Her sculptures are mostly figurative, and she uses positions and body lines to convey certain emotions. This is where the mind/body practice seen in yoga comes to play in her inspiration. 

On a bright Spring day, I headed to Gaëlle’s home atelier on the Upper West Side. I was eager to see the sculptures that she was working on for her upcoming exhibition at Par Excellence and to hear more about what inspires her.

When and how did you discover sculpture?

I was inspired by a university friend who I stumbled upon sculpting one day which then led me to discover a sculpture store in my Parisian neighborhood. This was 25 years ago, and I am still inspired by sculpting every day. In the beginning, I did 2 years of clay modeling on my own before joining a sculpting atelier in Paris in order to learn the fundamentals.

I read that you are inspired by contemporary dance and that a gesture, a position of the body expresses a feeling that you try to capture in your sculptures. Can you please speak more about this?

Positions of the body are a different alphabet to communicate. Each time I see a dance show, I am inspired by a new position to express a certain feeling in my work. If you see a shoulder higher and you think, “so what?”, shoulders open and you read confidence, arms to the sky and you feel gratitude, feet planted firmly to the ground you get a sense of security, shoulders folding inwards you get a sense of humility. Each new variation of the body opens our sight to a new feeling. The position of the body speaks without any words spoken.This interaction between body and mind fascinates me and I use these positions as a tool to communicate through my sculptures. This is why I titled my new exhibition at Par Excellence, “Lignes de Vie” (Lines of Life) as the line of the body is always showing us something.

Where do you find inspiration?

I am inspired by every piece of art I am enjoying, by yoga, by modern dance, and by all sorts of objects such as a stone, a piece of wood, a piece of steel.

Which city awakens your creativity the most?

New York City.

What do you do when you are stuck on a project and need inspiration?

I take a pause, I create a distance with time. If possible, I put my project in my living room in order to live with it. If this is not possible, I take a photo of it…and I write down in my phone anything that comes to my mind…otherwise, I go and see art in a museum, this always gives me some new inspiration.

Where is the place that you can’t wait to get back to?

Paris.

Where is the first place you want to travel to after the pandemic is over?

The Great Wall of China but I know I will not go anytime soon…

What is your favorite city or place in the world?

Bali. For peace and surfing, authenticity and kindness, smiles and Frangipani flowers!

Favorite gallery/museum?

In NYC, The Met, MoMA and Fotografiska.
In Paris, all of the galleries around Rue de Seine in the 6th arrondissement, the streets, the squares, all the feelings around there inspire me a lot.

At your studio do you work in silence, listen to music or a podcast?

I mostly work in silence but there is no silence…I like to hear the real world around me.  When I use electric tools, I sometimes like to cover the noise with music.

What advice would you have liked to receive at the beginning of your career?

Trust your instincts.

Do you have a favorite quote?

“The more I know, the more I realize I do not know”, from Aristotle.

What is something that people don’t know about you / would be surprised to find out about you?

I love science fiction and comic books:  Enki Bilal, Jodorowsky, Moebius, Jean-Claude Meziere.

Did you discover any new artists recently?

Tawny Chatmon is a photography-based artist that I discovered at Fotografiska. I like that she uses photography as a first layer and adds collages and paint to the surface which gives her portraits a powerful emotion.

Julie Mehretu is a great artist that I discovered at The Whitney Museum. She creates impressively gigantic paintings with colors, lines and shapes. Her work is mostly abstract, but she sometimes adds some figurative parts as a canvas for abstraction.

Who are your favorite sculptors?

Alexander Calder, for his ingenuity.

Auguste Rodin, for the details of the human body.
Subodh Gupta, for the use of everyday life objects in his sculptures.
Louise Bourgeois, for the expression of her subconscious as a woman.

What podcast are you listening to?

“Demain n’attend pas” by Delphine Darmon (dynamic discussions with inspiring people acting in various fields to change the world).

“Les PassionariArts” by Adeline Couberes (giving a voice to women, inspiring and engaged in the art world).

What are your current favorite books?

L’Anomalie by Herve Le Tellier (there is a bit of science fiction, humor and philosophy in it which resonates with me so much).
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (pure nature, pure beauty, pure sensitivity).

What is your favorite room in your house?

My terrace where I can hear the birds sing.

What is something new you learned, or a project you started at home during the pandemic?

I started working with plaster mixed with paper as it is less messy to work this way at home.

What is an object that you would never part with?

My glasses.

Springtime in Paris or Autumn in NYC?

Both.

This year I want to…

Travel more and to keep on working on collaborative projects with other artists.

Gaëlle’s solo exhibition, “Lignes de Vie” (Lines of Life) will be on view June 11-19th, 2021 at our showroom at 344 Bowery. It will be open to the public by appointment only. Schedule an appointment at Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lignes-de-vie-sculpture-exhibition-hosted-by-par-excellence-tickets-155511307507

For private viewings, please email gaellehintzymarcel@gmail.com

You can see more of Gaëlle’s work at https://www.gaellehintzymarcel.com/ and on Instagram @gaellehintzysculpture.