The De Voldere Party during FIAC

This was a lovely party, with champagne, art, music, dancing and views of the Seine. The title takes you to the gallery Virgil de Voldere.

JTM Gallery

I spent a lot of time at this gallery in Paris. Johan Tamer Morael is an old friend from New York. He's doing great things in Paris with contemporary art and his art fair, Slick. I saw some desirable pieces for sale there, and performances that showed a decidedly New York Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Lower East Side influence. One of his artists Hughes Rochette had an installation with his partner Nathalie Brevet at the Colleges des Bernadins.

Image Credit: Cellula. Nathalie Brevet and Hughes Rochette. Photo by Franck Thibault.

Le Musee d'Orsay

Art Nouveau Revival and James Ensor were reasons to make the line at the Musee d'Orsay. I didn't know Ensor's work very well, but now I'm a convert, and there were some brilliant pieces by Verner Panton (to die for!)

Image: Living room with "Wohnskulptur" at private house at Basel Binningen, Rebgasse 108

Veilhan at Versailles

This artist was in Hubert Neumann's exhibition, The Incomplete, at CAM. He's definitely one of the best contemporary artists France has produced. Here you can see his work as it is created for and installed at Versailles. Brilliant!
Image: The coach of Xavier Veilhan © CVS

elles@centrepompidou

This is an amazing exhibition. Perhaps too much to take in in one go, but worth a revisit in that case. Artists like Marina Abramovic, Valie Export, Ana Mendieta, Louise Bourgeois, and many others are in the exhibition. I realized just now as I went through the female artists in my head that they are lacking black female artists, African, African-American, African-French, whatever, there is a dirth of them and someone should add some to the collection of the musee national d'art modern.
Image Credit:Pipilotti Rist: «À la belle étoile»,2007, (détail), installation audiovisuelle. © Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, London.

Pinacotheque de Paris: L'Age D'Or Hollandais

This is a great exhibition. I actually got to see this painting by Vermeer for the first time:

It's worth exploring all the visual symbols in the work and a treat to simply look and marvel at genius.

Saatchi Gallery and Phillips de Pury & Co

Simon de Pury once again played the elegant host at a party that featured some works by German artist Martin Kippenberger. If you saw the exhibition at MoMA earlier this year you would have seen some of the work Kippenberger did on Hotel stationary. I love the intimacy of these pieces, so small and delicate and vulnerable versus his larger manly works.



Image credit: http://www.artnet.com "Drawings on hotel stationary by Martin Kippenberger exhibitions, 1979-1997, in "Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective" at the Museum of Contemproary Art, Los Angeles
Photo by Brian Forrest"

Again a super glam crowd and a wonderful space to exhibit art. Peter Coffin's Alice in Wonderland-like staircase greeted visitors on entering. I love that piece too. I would guess it came from Emmanuel Perrotin as I saw a similar one some time ago at his gallery in Miami.



Image credit: http://www.artnet.com
Peter Coffin
Untitled (Spiral Staircase), 2007
Saatchi Gallery

Project Space 176 as part of the Zabludowicz Collection

I met Liz, the curator of the Zabludovicz Collection, in NYC for the Armory a few years ago. The project space in the north of London is quite impressive. It has a feel of something originating from a place of sincerity, which a lot of times seems lacking in the contemporary western art scene. Ai Weiwei & Serge Spitzer's painted urns were to die for!



Image credit: Ai Weiwei and Serge Spitzer from http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com

KANDINSKY PRIZE for Russian Art at the Louise T Blouin Foundation

This was an amusing evening. Though seemingly poker faced, Russians can be lots of fun. I fell in love all over again with the Blue Noses and their often irreverent, satirical view of the world.

The foundation itself is a beautiful space and I'm glad to have finally seen it.

London Lost

You're probably wondering why the posts have been so few and far between and a little bit impersonal. Well I lost the charger and usb connection for my camera but now I've found it and will be taking pics again. I'll post links to some of the things I saw in London....