FIAC has returned to Paris’s Grand Palais for its 43rd edition this week with a new On Site sector, which presents sculpture and installation in the Petit Palais. The fair brings together 186 galleries from 27 countries; we began closer to home, with 6 galleries from the city itself.
Air de Paris
Air de Paris’s eclectic and lively booth includes a multitude of the gallery’s represented artists working with a mix of mediums. Eliza Douglas’s 2016 painting The one I love is a highlight, working playfully with François Curlet’s MilDo, 2016; a colourful sculpture which loosely references a range of well-known items and cultral icons, from the humble guitar to the McDonald’s logo.
Almine Rech
Almine Rech Gallery, with spaces in Brussels and London aside from Paris, have also chosen to show a large selection of their artists with works from young figures such as Chloé Wise alongside established names including Richard Prince and Joseph Kosuth. The works span a broad time period — a feature at this event, as opposed to the separation that often occurs at FIAC’s fellow large-scale fairs — with 60s pieces from Tom Wesselmann sitting alongside vibrant 21st century works from Eric Mack and Bertrand Lavier. Lavier’s intricate painted piano Gaveau, 2008 sits across the road at the Petit Palais.
Loevenbruck
Another multi-artist booth, Galerie Loevenbruck’s selection is bold. Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux’s Tableaux de maîtres, masterpieces, 2016 greets visitors as they approach the booth along the side wall corridor, with many framed and free canvas dog paintings; some twee, some funny and some rather cute. Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel’s Oak mural with boots (4 pairs) is another witty piece, four pairs of wellington boots rendered useless in their solid wood formation. The beautiful and slightly surreal works of Philippe Mayaux and Aline Szapocznikow add an element of escapism too.
Valentin
Valentin have chosen to focus on a dual artist show with works from George Henry Longly and Anne Neukamp. Longly’s water jet cut works feature an intriguing mix of materials and details with marble-like surfaces, threaded wire patterns and embossed logos, the pieces hang from structures which look not unlike the displays in a DIY shop. Neukamp’s oil works feature similar lines and forms, looking slightly too perfect to have been formed completely by hand, with metallic surfaces and satisfying repetition of shapes.
Balice Hertling
The Tarantino-esque faces of a quartet of emus welcome viewers at Balice Hertling’s booth, courtesy of Will Benedict’s painting We’re told that it is the sleep of reason that beget monsters, but what if reason, wide awake, is monstrous already. Simone Fatall’s long-legged, missing-torsoed sculptures add another touch of whimsy, to a booth which feels energetic, but with enough room for each of the characterful pieces to hold their own.
Bernard Ceysson
With bases in Paris, Luxembourg, Geneva and Saint-Étienne, Bernard Ceysson are showing ten artists at FIAC with a focus on graphic simplicity, bold colours and impactful sculptures. There are multiple works from the 60s from artists including Louis Cane, Claude Viallat, Bernard Pagès and Patrick Saytour.
FIAC runs until 23 October at Grand Palais and Petit Palais, Paris
