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.

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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.

- - -

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.”

- - -

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.

- - -

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)

Download PDF

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.

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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, 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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Multimedia Artist Annina Roescheisen Presents New Paintings and Drawings from her Ongoing 'Flying Dragons' Series in a Solo Show at Athenessa Gallery in Los Angeles

September 8, 2021

Titled The Red Twine of Flying Dragons, the exhibition features 20 new mixed media works, each conceived by the artist over the course of over 20 consecutive hours. The new work expands on the Flying Dragons series and reflect Roescheisen’s ceaseless and expanding exploration of human emotions through the symbolism of color.

November 7 – December 5, 2021

Athenessa Gallery | 616 South La Brea Avenue | Los Angeles, CA 90036

Left. Annina Roescheisen, Lovers Again & Again, 2019. Mixed media on aluminum canvas, 140 x 140 cm. Courtesy of Annina Roescheisen. Right. Annina Roescheisen, Blossom, 2019. Mixed media on aluminum canvas, 140 x 140 cm. Courtesy of Annina Roescheisen. — *Left. Annina Roescheisen,* Lovers Again & Again, *2019. Mixed media on aluminum canvas, 140 x 140 cm. Courtesy of Annina Roescheisen. Right. Annina Roescheisen,* Blossom, 2019. Mixed media on aluminum canvas, 140 x 140 cm. Courtesy of Annina Roescheisen.

September 8, 2021 (Los Angeles, California, United States) – New York/Munich-based German multimedia artist Annina Roescheisen (b. 1982, Rosenheim) presents The Red Twine of Flying Dragons, an all-new selection of seven mixed media paintings and 13 mixed media and ink drawings from her ongoing Flying Dragons series. On view at Athenessa Gallery, Los Angeles, from November 7—December 5, 2021, the works build on the artist’s first and only exhibition of the series at Athenessa in 2019, as she pursues her investigation of human emotions, and of the human condition, as they materialize through color.

Cultivating her study of Medieval art, iconography, and fairy tales, Roescheisen draws her attention to the notion of bestiaries: collections of allegorical tales of animals, birds, and fantastic creatures, the first of which appeared in the 2nd century AD, in which each being is bestowed with a moral and symbolic quality. In Flying Dragons, she mirrors the symbolism of dragons onto her inner world. Emotions, like dragons, cannot be scientifically perceived. Yet, emotions are real. And as they are, dragons can be too. Moving beyond the questioning of their existence, and past the at times positive, at others negative nature conferred to dragons, she expresses instead their inherent power, one akin to that of emotions.

Through her creative process, the artist herself becomes subject and object of her myth. Weaving in the notion of alchemy, she meticulously blends pigments in the making of her own tints. She begins each painting with two colors, leaving the rest of her palette to raw intuition. Setting the canvas on the ground, her fingers take on the role of brushes; she delicately pours water onto it, her hands in turn glazing the surface and swiveling the canvas. Roescheisen’s creative sessions for one work can extend between 20 and 26 consecutive hours, as she slowly enters an altered state of physical and spiritual self and gradually composes her artistic language. Layers cumulate with time, in turn drying and imbibing the canvas. In her drawings, echoing the lavish illustrations of bestiary manuscripts, Roescheisen finely traces on the paper with a feather, punctuating it with dripping beads of the alchemically mixed colors.

In a constant emotional and rational interplay, Roescheisen’s dialogue with her own fantastic world, her own dragons, materializes on the canvas and on the paper. Forms appear, mirroring the manifold emotions that stir the artist at each given moment of the process. Lain across the works, these imaginary beings take on their widest sense as she encourages her viewer to delve into his own fantasy, to create and to name his own personal dragons.

In Téméraire (2021), “reckless” or “fearless” in French, the vivid blue and red colors are the first perceived, each attributed to a distinct dragon. The two phantasmagoric figures gradually build up to the viewer as blood vessel-like veins run down to their center. From there, the color tones become softer, diluting into shades of rosé, orange, purple, and yellow. Slowly, a form of kindness, at first concealed by the bright reds and blues, emerges from the canvas, glowing in the face of an apparent fearlessness.
Roescheisen explains:

“The attributes of each dragon’s character unfold through form and color – sometimes appearing as visible shapes, sometimes emanating from the colors that constitute them. Each form, each color evokes an emotion within us, and from it we begin to decipher, to imagine each dragon’s essence, its multiple personas. These dragons evoke an endless, unique range of emotions in each one of us, and with them we realize that we are in fact free to perceive, to see, to feel, and to interpret, ultimately each creating our very own dragons.”

To some of the drawings, she subtly adds a string of red yarn, sewn onto the paper. This red twine, sometimes present, sometimes absent, both visible and invisible, and which lends the exhibition its name, unfolds from one work to the other; it is the red line of her own myth, of her emotional journey within each work, playfully appearing then vanishing between each work. A visual leitmotiv, it ties the body of work together, a border between the real and the fictional, the seen and the unseen, the human and the dragon within each one.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Annina Roescheisen:
Annina Roescheisen (b. 1982, Rosenheim, Germany) is a multimedia fine artist living and working in New York and Munich. In her work, which ranges from video, drawing, and painting to installation and performance art, Roescheisen engages and nurtures investigations on a shared human, and spiritual, condition.

Building on the impact and symbolism of color in its ability to evoke human emotions, she addresses themes ranging from the self & the other, the inner & outer world, the visible & the invisible, dream & reality, while consistently suggesting shifts in perspective. Drawn to how the human body interacts with and reacts to its sensitive environment – colors, textures, and sounds – she places physicality at the root of her creative process. Her body becomes an inherent part of the artwork, both object and subject of it, whether performative or materialized. Exploring the imperceptible, she exposes the invisible, the intangible, and the inaudible’s transient yet boundless influence over our physical and emotional selves.

Roescheisen’s work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions worldwide. Notable solo exhibitions include Bridging Grey, Ki Smith Gallery, New York (2019); Black & Blue, Speerstra Gallery, Paris (2018); and What are you fishing for? MANA Contemporary Art Museum, New Jersey (2017). She has taken part in numerous group shows among which the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda, Berlin (2019).

Since 2012, she has been continuously performing in Systema Occam by reputed French artist Xavier Veilhan, previously shown at the Delacroix Museum and Hermès Foundation, Paris, among others. Her 2015 video work, A Love Story, received wide international acclaim, conferring her multiple awards including the Award of Merit – Best Woman Filmmaker at the Best Short Film Festival (Los Angeles, 2015) and the International Award of Outstanding Excellence at the International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration & Equality (IFFPIE, Jakarta, 2016).

anninaroescheisen.com

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Photo London 2021 | Multimedia Artist Annina Roescheisen Presents Bridging Grey Photographic Series

August 31, 2021

Photo London | Boogie-wall Gallery, London

9—12 September 2021

Preview: Wednesday 8 September, 1—9PM

Somerset House | Strand, WC2R 1LA London

Annina Roescheisen, Bridging Grey - 1, 2019. Chromogenic fine art print mounted on Dibond, 80 x 120. Edition of 7 + 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist. — *Annina Roescheisen,* Bridging Grey - 1, *2019. Chromogenic fine art print mounted on Dibond, 80 x 120. Edition of 7 + 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist.*

Annina Roescheisen, Bridging Grey - 0, 2019. Chromogenic fine art print mounted on Dibond, 40 x 60 cm. Edition of 7 + 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist. — *Annina Roescheisen,* Bridging Grey - 0, *2019. Chromogenic fine art print mounted on Dibond, 40 x 60 cm. Edition of 7 + 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist.*

August 31, 2021 (London, United Kingdom) — Munich and New York-based multimedia artist Annina Roescheisen unveils a selection of photographs from her acclaimed Bridging Grey performative video piece (2017—2019), marking the series’ European debut after being shown for the first and only time in New York in September 2019. On view at Photo London 2021 from September 9—12, 2021, the selection will be featured as part of Boogie-wall Gallery, London’s Three Women to Watch presentation.

Bridging Grey centers on Roescheisen’s intuitive exploration of the interconnectedness of color, movement, and emotion, as she takes the aesthetics of color and, quite literally, embodies it. Choreographed and executed by the artist over the course of over two years from 2017 to 2019, the performance is presented as an eight-channel video installation. Seven screens continuously and simultaneously loop a one-minute video, one for each color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, indigo, and violet. An eighth screen, dedicated to the color grey, is placed at the center, its duration being the sum of all other videos, hereby playing consecutively in concert with each of the seven colors as the viewer traverses the work. In each video, Roescheisen poetically embraces a room gently washed in the corresponding hue, staging her own perceptions and emotions of each color.

Stills taken from the original video work, three chromogenic prints mounted on Dibond – Bridging Grey 0, 1, and 2 – will be presented by Boogie-wall Gallery, London as part of the gallery’s presentation at Photo London 2021.

For more information, please visit the Photo London website.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Annina Roescheisen:

Annina Roescheisen (b. 1982, Rosenheim, Germany) is a multimedia fine artist living and working in New York and Munich. In her work, which ranges from video, drawing, and painting to installation and performance art, Roescheisen engages and nurtures investigations on a shared human, and spiritual, condition.

Building on the impact and symbolism of color in its ability to evoke human emotions, she addresses themes ranging from the self & the other, the inner & outer world, the visible & the invisible, dream & reality, while consistently suggesting shifts in perspective. Drawn to how the human body interacts with and reacts to its sensitive environment – colors, textures, and sounds – she places physicality at the root of her creative process. Her body becomes an inherent part of the artwork, both object and subject of it, whether performative or materialized. Exploring the imperceptible, she exposes the invisible, the intangible, and the inaudible’s transient yet boundless influence over our physical and emotional selves.

Roescheisen’s work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions worldwide. Notable solo exhibitions include Bridging Grey, Ki Smith Gallery, New York (2019); Black & Blue, Speerstra Gallery, Paris (2018); and What are you fishing for? MANA Contemporary Art Museum, New Jersey (2017). She has taken part in numerous group shows among which the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda, Berlin (2019).

Since 2012, she has been continuously performing in Systema Occam by reputed French artist Xavier Veilhan, previously shown at the Delacroix Museum and Hermès Foundation, Paris, among others. Her 2015 video work, A Love Story, received wide international acclaim, conferring her multiple awards including the Award of Merit – Best Woman Filmmaker at the Best Short Film Festival (Los Angeles, 2015) and the International Award of Outstanding Excellence at the International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration & Equality (IFFPIE, Jakarta, 2016).

anninaroescheisen.com

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Museum Frieder Burda Presents Major Solo Exhibition of German Artist Katharina Sieverding in Baden-Baden and Berlin

August 5, 2021

Katharina Sieverding, THE GREAT WHITE WAY GOES BLACK, IX, 1977. Color photograph, acrylic, and steel frames, 300 x 500 cm. Installation view of the exhibition: Katharina Sieverding – Close Up, KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, 2005 © Katharina Sieverding, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021. — *Katharina Sieverding,* THE GREAT WHITE WAY GOES BLACK, IX, *1977. Color photograph, acrylic, and steel frames*, *300 x 500 cm. Installation view of the exhibition:* Katharina Sieverding – Close Up, KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, 2005 © Katharina Sieverding, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021.

Watching the Sun at Midnight at Museum Frieder Burda and Headlines at the museum’s Berlin exhibition space Salon Berlin brings together works spanning all phases of Sieverding’s pioneering and widely appreciated 60-year oeuvre. The exhibition will include videos from the late 1960s as well as her oversized self-portrait series from the 1970s to the 1990s, right up to her contemporary productions.

Watching the Sun at Midnight | August 28, 2021 – January 9, 2022 | Museum Frieder Burda

Headlines | September 3 – 26, 2021 | Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda

August 5, 2021 (Baden-Baden, Germany) – The internationally renowned art museum Museum Frieder Burda, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier, and widely acclaimed for its significant private collection of Classical Modernism and Contemporary Art of over 1,000 works, unveils a major exhibition of reputed German artist Katharina Sieverding. Curated by Udo Kittelmann in cooperation with Katharina Sieverding, Watching the Sun at Midnight pays homage to Sieverding’s persistent treatment of contemporary German and global matters, one that has ensured the ongoing relevance of her work over the past 60 years. In conjunction with the exhibition in Baden-Baden, Salon Berlin presents Headlines, a thematically focused selection of large-scale photographs referring to the darkest chapter in Germany’s history, the National Socialist era, in the Former Jewish Girls’ School in Auguststrasse in Berlin.

Organized in collaboration with Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Watching the Sun at Midnight is an extensive solo presentation of Czech-born German artist Katharina Sieverding’s (b. 1944, Prague) work, covering all phases of her oeuvre from her videos of the late 1960s to her oversized self-portrait series of the 1970s and up to her contemporary productions, with new works including Gefechtspause (“Ceasefire”), which addresses the lockdown during the COVID-19 crisis. This exhibition is the latest in a series of monographic exhibitions of photography-based positions at the Museum Frieder Burda, including Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky, Rodney Graham, and JR, all of which investigated the staging opportunities and great breadth of technology as opposed to painting.

A student of German artist Joseph Beuys, Sieverding has continuously focused her artistic energy on political issues. Considered a pioneer of photography internationally, testing the boundaries of the medium’s manifold technical possibilities, she is known for her unconventional visual strategies and media-led creative practice. She has revitalized the artistic potential of photography, introducing the super-sized format as a key element of her exhibitions, at a time when the practice was seldom utilized. In her serial photographic works, she gives expression to reflections about identity, the current social, political, and cultural climate, gender discourses, and the necessary emancipation of the female artist. Mirroring her themes and subjective perception of current events, her works convey an image of the time.

*Katharina Sieverding, O.T.I / 2019, (Dachau), Digitaldruckauf Vliesrückenpapier, 252 x 356 cm © Katharina Sieverding, VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2021 © Foto: Klaus Mettig, VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2021.*

From the microscopic to the macroscopic, the references in her oeuvre are complex. Her father’s clinically dissecting view sharpened her own focus and opened it to the technical opportunities presented by her chosen medium. From her origins in theater, Sieverding understood how images on a wall can define an entire room, with the same immediate and all-consuming effect of a stage backdrop or a big screen in a cinema – which in turn unlock the imagination for an introspective look at fantasy worlds. Her pictures, often in black-and-white with a bright red signal color and accompanied by striking slogans, reflect media-based and commercial manipulation strategies, questioning them at the same time: it is no coincidence that the artist has repeatedly and consciously escaped the museum setting and sought direct contact with the broader public in common urban spaces. Her earlier, highly self-reflective role in the Düsseldorf art scene, which came across mainly as a men’s club, raised her awareness of the question of one’s own individuality and identity, gender, history and its conditions – and the fluid borders and process-like transformations between these categories.

“I don’t make propaganda art and I don’t want to be seen as somebody who stands for anything in particular. All these designations merely pin me down. I want to adopt an independent position and express my thoughts through my works.” – Katharina Sieverding

In addition to the presentation at Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, the concomitant exhibition Headlines will be on view from September 3 – 26, 2021, at the institution’s Berlin-based exhibition space, Salon Berlin, located in the notable Former Jewish Girls’ School on the city’s historical Auguststrasse. The thematic selection brings together large-format photographic works by the artist that turn to the darkest part of German history: that of National Socialism. Through these photographs, which build on documents from the concentration camps at Dachau and Sachsenhausen, as well as records held at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Sieverding points to the widely diverse manifestations and expressions of anti-Semitism and exclusion, racism, and violence, outlining the latter’s timelessness and societies’ inability to surmount them as they recur throughout history. On the occasion of her exhibition in 2019 at the Dachau Palace, the artist herself stated, “[t]his moment in time has vehemently touched me, especially as I observe the current evolution of Germany.” In parallel, moving from the shared history to her personal biography, the artist also presents monumental self-portraits from the late 1960s and the work TESTCUTS, a reflection on Katharina Sieverding’s own life: events in the art world from 1966 to the present are shown together to form a large-scale 20 meter photo collage.

Considered one of the leading art museums in Germany and internationally, Museum Frieder Burda is home to its founder Frieder Burda’s extensive and growing collection of Classical Modernism and Contemporary Art, encompassing over 1,000 paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs, and works on paper. In addition to its collection, the museum has mounted major solo exhibitions, presenting works of Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Katharina Grosse, William N. Copley, Andreas Gursky, and James Turrell. Inaugurated in 2004, the museum’s five-storey building nestled in Baden-Baden’s majestic Lichtentaler Park, designed by iconic New York architect Richard Meier, caught the world’s attention for the luminosity of the design, inducing visitors to experience the art and the space in an equally awe-inspiring manner – and owing it to be referred by many as the “Jewel in the Park” in the newly recognized UNESCO World Heritage site of Baden-Baden.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Katharina Sieverding:

Born in Prague, Katharina Sieverding studied at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts and at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art. She was involved in several theater productions as a stage designer, including the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the Burgtheater Vienna, the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 1967 Sieverding joined the class of Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She traveled to and gave lectures in Canada, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union. From 1990 to 1992, she was a visiting professor at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts and subsequently held a professorship for Visual Culture Studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. Other guest professorships included the Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu in Japan, the International Summer Academy in Salzburg and the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.

Her work has been shown in 850 group and 150 solo exhibitions and is represented in numerous renowned collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, the Museum Folkwang, Essen, and the Kunstsammlung NRW. Katharina Sieverding has participated in the documenta in Kassel several times and in the Venice Biennale. She has received numerous prestigious awards and scholarships. Katharina Sieverding lives and works in Düsseldorf.

About Udo Kittelmann:

Udo Kittelmann (Düsseldorf, Germany, 1958) is the artistic director of the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden. Long-time director of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin (2008-2020), he has also acted as director of the Kölnischer Kunstverein (1994—2001) and of the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (MMK) (2002—2008). A world-renowned curator known for his investigations of curatorial practices and institutions’ relationships with art, Kittelmann has based his curatorial approach on close collaboration with artists, setting up their works, moving beyond the aesthetic dimension and focusing on the artworks’ specific socio-political context.

About Museum Frieder Burda:

Museum Frieder Burda is an internationally acclaimed Modern and Contemporary art museum located in Baden-Baden, Germany, home to the prestigious Frieder Burda Collection which concentrates on Classical Modernism and Contemporary Art and encompasses around 1000 paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs, and works on paper. Held under the Frieder Burda Foundation since 1998, which the eponymous collector established to preserve and make it accessible to the public, it is now housed in a building designed by American star architect Richard Meier in 2004. Since opening, the museum has hosted numerous high-caliber solo exhibitions by the likes of Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Katharina Grosse, William N. Copley, Andreas Gursky, Anselm Kiefer, and James Turrell.

About Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda:

Opened in 2016, Salon Berlin is the Museum Frieder Burda’s Berlin-based exhibition and event space. Closely linked to the museum in Baden-Baden, the Salon accompanies and conveys the museum’s program and collection. Under the artistic direction of its founder Patricia Kamp, it is dedicated to the promotion and mediation of new forms of artistic expression. Past exhibitions included the first institutional solo exhibitions of Sonia Gomes, Bharti Kher and Matthew Lutz-Kinoy in Germany as well as thematic exhibitions that brought into dialogue works by artists, such as Alicja Kwade, Candice Breitz, or Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg with artworks by Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, William Copley, or Willem de Kooning from the Frieder Burda Collection.

Katharina Sieverding, Watching the Sun at Midnight

August 28, 2021—January 9, 2022

Museum Frieder Burda

Lichtentaler Allee 8b, 76530 Baden-Baden

Opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 10am—6pm

Katharina Sieverding, Headlines

September 3–26, 2021

Salon Berlin – Museum Frieder Burda, Berlin

Auguststrasse 11—13, 10117 Berlin

Opening hours: Tuesday–Thursday, 3pm–6pm, Friday–Saturday, 12pm–6pm

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Berlin-Based Heim Balp Architekten Complete Two New Urban Infill Projects in Barcelona

August 3, 2021

Left. Heim Balp Architekten. Exterior view of Carrer de la Diputació residential building in Barcelona, Spain. Photography with Filippo Poli. Courtesy of Heim Balp Architekten. Right. Heim Balp Architekten. Exterior view of Carrer de Nàpols residential building in Barcelona, Spain. Photography with Filippo Poli. Courtesy of Heim Balp Architekten.

The newly completed Carrer de la Diputació and Carrer de Nàpols residential urban infills engage with the city’s rich architectural and cultural sphere, all-the-while responding to its dense urban environment.

August 3, 2021 (Barcelona, Spain) – HEIM BALP ARCHITEKTEN, the Berlin-based practice founded in 2006 by Michael Heim and Pietro Balp, have completed the Carrer de la Diputació and Carrer de Nàpols residential developments. By conceiving them as urban infills, the architecture and urban design team, whose vision is rooted in a distinct notion of architecture as social incubator, demonstrates its sensitivity to and engagement with the local architectural, cultural, and urban context. These completions, each with its distinct architectural language, will be followed by the Carrer de Gombau and Carrer de l’Aurora projects, also addressing Barcelona’s compact urban sphere through context-specific infills, due to be completed in 2022.

With projects across Europe from Berlin to Barcelona and Milan, Heim Balp’s multifaceted designs include, and often merge, residential and cultural projects with commercial and work environments. Cultivating space’s considerable potential to shape social interaction, influenced by its founders’ experience of 1990s Berlin, they create inherently social, diverse communities that respond to and expand on the existing urban dynamics at play.

*Heim Balp Architekten. Exterior view of Carrer de la Diputació’s façade in Barcelona, Spain. Photography with Filippo Poli. Courtesy of Heim Balp Architekten.*

Looking to seize and develop the full potential of the given urban space, Heim Balp’s designs for the Carrer de la Diputació and Carrer de Nàpols build on the applied notion of urban infill. Both located in Barcelona’s dense Eixample quarter, erected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Carrer de la Diputació is a seven-story building situated on a 7.5-meter-wide and 28-meter-deep site, entirely covered by the building, while Carrer de Nàpols occupies a prominent corner site with a singular 45-degree oblique floor plan. Both conceived as vertical extensions of the city in response to a limited ground area, they reflect the studio’s creative and pragmatic understanding of local planning policies and constraints, all-the-more in a city advocating for reduced density.

Intent on retaining a contextual essence, the local culture guides the material and aesthetic choices of the Diputació and Nàpols projects, noticeable in particular on the façades. Circulating local restrictions for a classical, hierarchical floor division, the cladding of both multilayered façades – complementing windows with filtering panels – is folded in and out, reflecting Barcelona’s playful architecture, each through its very own, singular architectural language. At Carrer de la Diputació, the hybrid façade is clad with openable red stretch steel panels, boldly calling to the brick colors of the historic Plaza de Toros. Set vertically, they extend upwards, emphasizing the verticality of the slim building while serving protection from sun and glare. Fixed over a first partly concealed window front, the terracotta panels of the Carrer de Nápols play with the color of the city’s traditional plaster façades, replacing them with beautifully crafted ceramics tiles instead. Continuously referencing the surrounding culture, Heim Balp expose a porous building, where visible French windows and hidden loggias coexist: a filter through which residents communicate with the rest of the city.

*Heim Balp Architekten. Exterior view of Carrer de Nàpols’s façade in Barcelona, Spain. Photography with Filippo Poli. Courtesy of Heim Balp Architekten.*

Their designs are conceived as an inherently mixed-use space, allowing for a plurality of functions to cohabit. Building on their experience of Berlin’s urban revival in the 1990s, during which they founded and managed DELI – a 1,000-square-meter warehouse-turned-alternative event space for creative interventions and social exchange – Heim and Balp consider these two buildings as rife with spatial possibilities. In both cases, fostering the notion of community while responding to the limited size of the individual units, they turn shared spaces into a common resource, distributing communal spaces throughout the building. At la Diputació, the main common area is the basement, equipped with a kitchen and a shared laundry room, as well as leisure and work areas. The other two, a mezzanine and large rooftop space, open onto the luminous atrium, the facing street, and over the rest of the city. Based on mobility and connectivity, the resulting designs act as intelligible contemporary urban living spaces.

Co-founding partners Michael Heim and Pietro Balp expand:

“Our shared time in Berlin in the 1990s has led us to conceive of space as inherently raw and full of opportunities. As a core part of a space, architecture has a considerable potential to shape the experiences within it. By fusing various functions – the public and the private, the social, the commercial, and the cultural – these two Barcelonian designs cultivate endless interactions with and between the individuals that inhabit them, ultimately generating a new, essential social energy.”

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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 (1): Carrer de la Diputació (453)

Location: Barcelona, Spain (Eixample)

Completion Date: 2021

Type: Mixed-use (residential; hospitality; commercial)

Area: 1,050 m2

Project Team: Pietro Balp; Michael Heim; Ben Goldstein; Sara Brysch; Andreia Martins; Tommaso Petrucci; Giordana Ghinzani; in collaboration with Derryk Dettinger Arquitecte.

Project Name (2): Carrer de Nàpols (236)

Location: Barcelona, Spain (Eixample)

Completion Date: 2021

Type: Residential

Area: 600 m2

Project Team: Pietro Balp; Michael Heim; Ben Goldstein; Andreia Martins; Cecilia Samà; Lia Janela; Federica Carletto; in collaboration with Derryk Dettinger Arquitecte.

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AFIKARIS Gallery Presents ‘Kwata Saloon’, Immersing Visitors Into The Work And World Of Cameroonian Artist Ajarb Bernard Ategwa

August 2, 2021

Left. Ajarb Bernard Atwega, A family something 2021. Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 199 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. Right. Ajarb Bernard Ategwa, Early Morning Selfies, 2021. 80 x 80 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. — *Left. Ajarb Bernard Atwega,* A family something 2021. Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 199 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. Right. Ajarb Bernard Ategwa, Early Morning Selfies, *2021. 80 x 80 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.*

On the occasion of Ajarb Bernard Atwega’s first solo exhibition in France, AFIKARIS Gallery’s 130 m2 Paris space turns into a beauty salon. Kwata Saloon, presented from August 28—September 28, 2021, pays tribute to the ephemeral hair salons popping up each year in Cameroon between November and December, and from which Atwega's new body of work draws its inspiration.

August 28–September 28, 2021

August 2, 2021 (Paris, France) – After having brought visitors to the mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with Cameroonian painter Jean David Nkot’s Human@Condition (May 29—July 7, 2021) and reflected on power by confronting the gazes of John Madu and Ousmane Niang (Figures of Power, July 10—August 24, 2021), AFIKARIS Gallery turns to the site of a cultural and social practice that binds generations and genders alike: hair salons. Kwata Saloon unveils a new body of work by Ajarb Bernard Atwega (b. 1988, Kumba, Cameroon), focusing on hairstyling as a source of social connection. On view from August 28—September 28, 2021, the gallery transforms into an immersive beauty parlor as the large, acidic canvases and smaller portraits that populate its walls – echoing the posters traditionally displayed in salons and the headshots shared on social networks – project scenes of togetherness, conviviality, and cultural bonding.

This new series bears witness to a thematic evolution in the art of Atwega, who continuously feeds his iconography with scenes from his daily life in Douala, Cameroon. While his latest series had drawn him to the lush local markets, where the women selling fruits and vegetables were dressed in simple and sober clothes, Kwata Saloon presents them adorned with lavish outfits, sporting flawless hairstyles. Extending beyond individuals to signified places, he turns this time to the beauty salons, as sites and the people that inhabit them once gain fuse across his canvases. Ategwa points to the allure and radiating beauty of his characters, whom he confers with a new, effusive presence.

Looking to the cultural rituals ahead of the festive December season, Kwata Saloon delves specifically into the ephemeral salons that pop up at the end of the year in Cameroon, temporarily opening their doors to a seasonal clientèle before once again closing at the beginning of the following year. While he draws his eye to the pampered women, he also depicts the men involved in this beautifying process, underlining the generational and intergender ties cultivated by this local practice. Setting his easel in the beauty parlors, Ategwa bears witness to a temporary period, during which wellbeing and sharing are a central part of social life.

The vivid colors spurting under Atwega's brushes pay tribute to the pop aesthetic, mirroring the heat and bustle of Douala, where the artist lives. He homes in on a distinct social phenomenon, anchoring it in the socioeconomic and political context of Cameroon through the very aesthetics of his personal artistic style. In A family something (2021), he draws attention to the familial nature of the process, literally and broadly, highlighting the many generations, genders and strands of society involved. In a moment of togetherness and intimate yet culturally shared family time, two brothers braid their sister’s hair while the other sibling observes the scene. Calling to the contemporary specificity of this custom, the vibrant colors conceal a recognizable urbanism and the markers of a both local and global consumption society.

Ajarb Bernard Ategwa, Douala 24 December, 2021. 200 x 239 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery. — *Ajarb Bernard Ategwa,* Douala 24 December, *2021. 200 x 239 cm. Courtesy of AFIKARIS Gallery.*

Douala 24 December (2021) is a glimpse into a beauty salon in Douala on Christmas Eve. The viewer is directly plunged in the intimacy of the hair salon. Barely perceptible from a distance, a fine white line delicately strings from a lock of hair into the skilled fingers of the weaver. The finesse of the thread – one that will carry the complex and weighty structure of the headdress – draws the attention of the viewer to the technicality of the action. Their bodies adorned with swathes of colored dots, the voluptuous figures contrast with the flat areas that compose the surrounding environment. Testifying to the artist’s concern with detail and compositional skill, the canvas ultimately captures the bustle of a celebratory moment, a distinct snippet of family life tainted with anticipation and tenderness.

"I confer my colors with a very personal, yet perhaps shared symbolic layer. Blue evokes the sea and calls to Douala, Kribi, and Kimbe. Yellow invokes the sun and points to the north of Cameroon. On the other hand, in using red and brown, I hint at the conflicts that have been plaguing the western regions for the past five years. Bathed in these colors, my characters inhabit the reality of their lived environment. Yet, by depicting them as such, I seek to liberate them from the duress of their everyday lives, instead paying homage to small moments of raw joy and broad solidarity." – Ajarb Bernard Ategwa

Mirroring these ephemeral salons, the exhibition space is revisited as a beauty parlor where vibrant shampoo bottles, plastic combs and magazines cohabit with the glow of Ategwa’s paintings. Organized as part of Kwata Saloon, a parallel program involving hair weaving and manicures will be unveiled ahead of the exhibition.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Ajarb Bernard Ategwa:

Ajarb Bernard Atwega (b. 1988, Kumba, Cameroon) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and lives in Douala, Cameroon. Fascinated with drawing and painting since his youth, he is a self-taught artist.

Mainly made in acrylic, his graphic paintings play with simplified forms and the intensity of colors as he offers a local perspective on modes of self-representation in Cameroon today. The style and composition of his images are reminiscent of post-independence African black-and-white studio photography. While the latter call to the work of Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keita, his use of framing and well-defined identities references the more contemporary influences of image-fused social networks.

Ajarb Bernard Atwega's work has been presented widely in Cameroon, including at the National Museum of Yaounde (World Bank Exhibition 2019, curated by Simon Njami), and was recently acquired by the Pérez Art Museum Miami. It has also been featured in numerous major international fairs such as FIAC (Paris); Art Basel (Miami, Hong Kong); and Frieze (London). Kwata Saloon, presented at AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris, from August 28—September 28, 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.

Kwata Saloon | August 28—September 28, 2021

AFIKARIS Gallery

38 rue Quincampoix

75004 Paris, France

info@afikaris.com

www.afikaris.com

Current and upcoming presentations:

Group show: Saïdou Dicko, Salifou Lindou, Cristiano Mangovo

Art Paris Art Fair | Grand Palais Éphémère, Champ de Mars, Paris

September 7—12, 2021

Group show: Moustapha Baidi Oumarou, Salifou Lindou, Omar Mahfoudi, Nana Yaw Oduro

1-54 London | Somerset House, London

October 14—17, 2021

Un Monde Bleu | A solo exhibition of Moustapha Baidi Oumarou

AFIKARIS Gallery, Paris

October 2—November 2, 2021

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