The latest of Ward Gallery‘s roving programme, the exhibition brought seventeen emerging artists into a Paris apartment during Art Basel—an energetic counterpoint to the capital’s grand art fair.
When New York-based curator and writer Saam Niami met Moustafa Thaer—namesake of the Dubai art agency and project platform Thaer Select—last April, they realised they had a few things in common: they organised group exhibitions in the cities where they live, they have a community of young creatives, and they’re both passionate about art. “I told Moustafa that his project reminded me of ours,” said Niami, referring to his first Ward Gallery exhibition with partner Gabrielle Richardson, New York… NOW!. “We hit it off immediately, and he asked if we’d ever want to show in Paris.” Richardson was immediately on board. “We wanted to bring our curation overseas, and we both knew immediately Paris was our dream city to have a show,” Richardson adds.
With ambition, savvy, and connections, the trio found a location: a large apartment across the street from the glass-domed Grand Palais, the location of Art Basel Paris. They pooled together their resources, gathering a group of seventeen artists from New York, London, Europe, and the Middle East. Using a combination of teamwork and grit—the artist list wasn’t finalised until the day they announced the show, and installation took place the morning the show opened because that was all the time they had—they opened Mélange, a two-day exhibition running from October 22 to 24. “As two brown people taking up space in this traditional luxury Parisian apartment, working with an art agency team from the Middle East, with a space placed literally across the street from the art fair, we subverted the expectations of what the art world can look like in these historic spaces,” said Richardson.
The trio selected the French word “mélange”—meaning “mix” or “mixing”—because it’s an umbrella term that encompasses everything the exhibition is about: the mixture of artists, the mixture of backgrounds, the mix of people attending the opening, the mixture of locations of the organizers, and even the idea of mixing Art Basel attendees with this group show of emerging artists.
“The following show proposal takes this mélange approach in all of its aspects,” reads the exhibition statement. “From the artist selection to the gallery collaboration, the show is a celebration of both the similarities that bring us together and the differences that set us apart.” Mélange provides a window into the minds of emerging contemporary artists across three continents—North America, Europe, and Asia. If Art Basel Paris is the grand dame of Paris Art Week, Mélange is its youthful, determined, and rebellious younger sibling.
New York artist Ireland Wisdom’s oil painting of three whimsical figures mixes modern New York life with embellishments culled from Old Master still lifes, as it overlooks Theater of the Associated (Volumes), New York artist Gala Prudent’s collage of twenty-four images of breasts taken from anthropological and art historical photographs, framed by a large brocade sheet. In the next room, British painter George Rouy’s painting Flash Thought hangs beneath a crystal chandelier.
“As we were setting up yesterday, I was walking through the space and thinking about how each room felt like a different type of dream state,” recalled Niami while giving his verbal version of an exhibition walkthrough. “George Rouy’s Flash Thought literally looks like a fading figure, while Hayfa Algwaiz’s A Veil Past Which You Cannot See IV is the blanket we hold tight to. Ireland Wisdom’s Three Graces looks like what you see right when you decide it’s time to go to bed. Dean Majd’s cj sleeping (woodstock) is literally a boy fast asleep with Mamali Shafani’s Celestial Guardian watching over him. Giovanni Leonardo Bassan’s BLUE TEMPLE is a dream you don’t want to wake up from, and Gala Prudent’s Theater of the Associated (Arcs) is a dream you wake up wanting to understand. Miles Greenberg’s Haemotherapy I is an entrapping fugue state. Adam Rouhana’s Arabian Horse and Amir Hazim’s Mercy are animals long lost that we want to make companions one more time. Mélange, to me, is about how well all of these artists are thinking and dreaming together.”
With the momentum high in Paris, Niami and Richardson hope that their roving Ward Gallery will return to the City of Light. “It seems Paris enjoyed what we did with this show as much as New York has enjoyed our other shows,” said Richardson and Niami. “Hopefully, this generates a long friendship between Ward and Paris.”
Words by Ann Binlot
