Art Paris Art Fair 2012

A new start for Art Paris Art Fair, the springtime fair for modern and contemporary art in Paris. Held from 29th March to 1st April 2012, ART PARIS ART FAIR is the springtime event for modern and contemporary art in France that brings together 120 galleries from 15 countries under the majestic glass roof of the Grand Palais.

Under a new leadership, the fair has been renamed ART PARIS ART FAIR and has undergone a complete transformation. This year sees 56% of newcomers to the fair, with some 40% of participating galleries from abroad. Also new is a VIP programme of visits entitled “Springtime in Paris,” a series of talks, a new section dedicated to cutting edge contemporary design called “Limited Edition.” Another novelty is “Large Format”, a project presenting close to a dozen monumental works within the fair
itself.

Fresh ambitions
A high quality European fair with a focus on the international art scene

As an event aimed at the general public, Art Paris Art Fair is working to promote what is a wide variety of arts scenes from around Europe - from Marseille to Helsinki and from Lisbon to Vienna. The objective is to discover and highlight some of the more singular local scenes such as that of Hungary which is exceptionally well represented this year with seven modern and contemporary galleries.

Particular attention is also paid to the present trend which sees contemporary artists questioning the heritage of European modernism and reassessing recent historical movements. Art Paris Art Fair also gives pride of place to modern work: a surrealist cabinet at Levy Gallery (Berlin), Viennese actionism at Konzett (Vienna) and Zimmerman Kratochwill (Graz). Also on show are examples of cinetism and research into optical phenomena at Lélia Mordoch (Paris) and Meyer Zafra as well as geometrical abstraction at Anne Lahumière (Paris) and Müller and Gimpel (Paris/London). Amateurs of lyrical abstraction will find much to see at the French galleries Berthet Aittouarès (Paris) and Jacques Elbaz (Paris).

Contemporary work also has its place, in particular with a number of leading galleries that are taking part in Art Paris Art Fair for the first time, notably Filles du Calvaire (Paris), Laurent Godin (Paris), Jérôme Poggi (Paris), l’Espace Beaumont (Luxemburg) which is unveiling a monumental work entitled « Europe » from the Atelier Van Lieshout, Germany’s Bourouina, Stefan Roepke and Anna Klinkammer. Photography is well represented with the arrivalof Priska Pasquer (Cologne) who is specialized in Japanese photography but is also showing paintings by Peter Halley and Philip Taff. Other photography specialists include Magnum (Paris), Michèle Chomette (Paris), Flatland (Utrecht) and Confluence (Nantes).

Art Paris Art Fair 2012 also provides an unprecedented platform for galleries to showcase trends on the international art scene with a particular focus on Asia with two Chinese and four Korean galleries. These come in addition to Europeans specialized in Asian and particularly Chinese art such as Paris-Beijing (Paris) or Kashya Hildebrand (Zürich). The Middle Eastern scene is showcased by Paris galleries Imane Farès (who brings a solo exhibition by Iraqi artist Halim Al Karim), Patrice Trigano and Albert Banamou, as well as Beirut’s Alice Mogabgab. For Latin America, Inception Gallery et Vanessa Quang will show artists such as Argentina’s Marina de Caro who attracted considerable attention at the last Biennale de Lyon and is the subject of a solo exhibition by Quang.