It’s almost becoming a spring ritual for me to stroll down booths at ART PARIS (a local art fair). I never missed one edition ever since I moved here three and a half years ago, and I would like to share with you 5 artists whose works have caught my eyes in the 2024 edition.
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Texture of the Nature
From my own viewing experience, the aspect of texture pops up strongly in works that impressed me. I made a selection to show you why.
1. Alice Bidault (France, 1994)
Éclore / Disclose, 2023
Installation, porcelain
Variable dimensions
My favorite discovery of this edition 💎
What do people find in art? Aesthetic pleasure? Spiritual contemplation? Financial returns? I think nowadays people are also looking up to artists to provide solutions to urgent problems that are on the agenda of humanity as a whole, like climate issues, immigration crisis, racial violence, etc. We now also seek out inspirations for alternative lifestyles from artists, and that where the young French artist Alice Bidault come into the equation.
This is an artist who “practices what she preaches”. She chooses to live in the countryside (le Morvan), leads a lifestyle that is close to the nature and low in its rhythm, and gets her hands dirty working in permaculture, making wines, keeping bees and raising chickens. There’s a real “integrity” that aligns her lifestyle with her creative activities. I see colors and sounds of nature from her wall installations or sculptures. The fact that her work could transport me to another place as if I were near a body of water or in a forest in a bustling art fair environment is quite mind-blowing. Can’t wait to see how she develops over the years to come as an artist…
2. Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930 - 2017)
Red hair, 1970/72
Sisal and wool
87 x 63 cm
Woven fibre sculptures can be soft and subtle, or radical and burning with emotions as they are in the case of the polish artist Abakanowicz. Her work can quickly evolve into a three-dimensional monumental presence that envelopes entirely the sensory experience of her audience. There’s so much tension and power in this small sisal and wool textile wall piece, yet so quiet on the surface, like an active volcano that sleeps only temporarily…
3. François Rouan (France, 1943)
Porta Appia, 1974
Oil on woven canvas
200.5 x 170.5 cm
Influenced by the Supports/Surfaces movement in the 60s, François Rouan found his most iconic expression language in the woven canvas. This monochrome is particularly striking. My restless gaze, vainly looking for something to fix my fleeting attention to, sunk little by little into a nameless calm.
4. Leandro Erich (Argentina, 1973)
Champignon - Collection de Nuages, 2018
Extra clear glass, ceramic ink digital printing, wooden vitrine, led lights
199.5 x 175 x 81 cm
It’s hard to be surprised by artworks these days, but this work definitely caught me off guard. The artist plays constantly with the perception of his audience, testing and pushing the limits of our senses. The cloud is there, and it’s not there, either, in the grand tradition of trompe-l’œil…
5. Tamara Kostianovsky (Argentine-American, 1974)
Tropical Rococo, 2021
Upholstery fabrics, discarded textiles, metal hook and chain
221 x 53 x 33 cm
Usually loaded with moral and religious significance, the butchery scene is not unfamiliar to a trained eye in the European Renaissance art. Goya and Rembrandt all have left behind them masterful, ultra-realistic, almost morbid depictions of slaughtered animals. And don’t forget there are Flemish still-life painters that specialised in the food market and culinary scene, like Bueckelaer.
Tropical Abattoir, the slaughterhouse scene remade with recycled (or should I say upcycled) decorative fabrics. The result is joyfully cruel. No need to double down on the references to our consumption-oriented culture and its numerous crises.
Others
Of course this can’t be all the highlights of the fair. There're works of other artists that really caught my eyes but I can’t fit them all in…
On the contemporary art side, there are Jacob Hashimoto with his playful layering of Japanese Washi paper, Pascal Convert with his super realistic “grainy” platinum print of the Bâmiyân landscape, Chiharu Shiota with a less typical black and white thread on canvas that looks like either the constellation or a map of our nervous system…
On the modern art side, I particularly liked the beautiful blocks of textures created by Judit Reigl and Geneviève Asse.
With love 📡💡💙
J.Z.
Thanks for reading this post! I hope you enjoy it. Remember to subscribe as I go around to see museums and gallery shows quite regularly, and I don’t want you to miss out on the latest gems! I keep all my posts free and public. The paid subscription is just one of those ways to show your support and to get full access to the publication archives.