©Prince Gyasi, The last one
During confinement you can find the works of the gallery on his website
Little by little, the Nil Gallery is making a place for itself in the contemporary African art market, which has been booming for 5 years. Emerging artists from the black continent are not the only ones represented there. But alongside visual artists from Asia or Poland, they hold the upper hand on rue des Coutures-Saint-Gervais, adjacent to the Picasso Museum.
Here we admire contemporary figurative and pop artists, often original and spectacular, never miserabilist. The audacious programming of Paul William and Hugo Zeitoun, two thirty-year-old gallery owners, is, on the contrary, representative of a joyful Afro-optimism.
So it is with the Ghanaian Prince Gyasin that in 2018, Vanity Fair ranked among the list of 9 avant-garde visual artists to follow. Apple, for its part, is collaborating with this 23-year-old young man based in Accra, who works on a lively chromatic palette in flat monochrome areas in tune with our century.
His “colorblock” photos taken using an iPhone or a digital Fuji push the saturation to the maximum and explore the color chart of black skin by celebrating their photogenicity. Like Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Prince Gyasina has the particularity of being synesthetic: he is one of those rare people capable of “ visualize sounds », who are " listen to colors », and associate colors with emotions.
©Prince Gyasin, Restoration
©Prince Gyasin, Projection
Another revelation, the autodidact Alimi Adewale, Nigerian artist whose work evokes social issues: unemployment, neglected youth, mortality, freedom of expression, political oppression. Between traditional African sculpture and contemporary art, the minimalist faces (€18/pair) of this ex-engineer question issues at the heart of society.
Finally, the tables ofAbé Odedina, also from Nigeria, recall the complex and subtle world of her fellow writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Focused on Yoruba cultures, the work on wood of this artist who lives between London and Salvador Bahia (Brazil) revisits classic themes on the border of Greek and Yoruba mythologies. His paintings (from €5000) are part of various major international collections, including the British Government Art Collection and the fashion designer (and collector) Agnès B.
Nile Gallery
14 Rue des Coutures Saint-Gervais, 75003 Paris
Monday to Friday, 13 p.m. to 19:30 p.m.
Tel: +01 44 54 04 07
Text: Katia Barillot
02.11.20
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS A MUST SEE
Susumu Shingu, praise of slowness
At the Jeanne Bucher Jaeger gallery, a century-old space at the bottom of a courtyard, around thirty drawings and kinetic sculptures, moving works by the Japanese artist Susumu Shingu, are displayed. It was a trend in vogue in the 1950s, led by artists such as the Athenian Takis or the Brazilian Soto.
Ethan Murrow and his hymn to plants
The Girls of Calvaire gallery, sheltered at the back of a courtyard, is hosting the solo show “Magic Soil” by the American Ethan Murrow until November 25. A unique set of around fifteen paintings and drawings that pay homage to nature.
Marilyn forever
Sixty years after her death, Marilyn still embodies the eternal feminine. In the heart of the Marais, Joseph gallery, the Monroe Experience offers a digital and poetic exhibition until November 21, to better understand the myth and the woman, a start-up before her time, entrepreneur and modern for the time (sexual freedom , psychoanalysis etc.).
NOW ON THE MOOD MARSH
The best tattoo parlors in Marais
Tattooing, an age-old practice, has long been the prerogative of convicts, dock workers, the underworld and sailors. Although it has become democratized, now affecting all profiles and concerning one in five French people, including 16% women compared to 10% men, it still remains taboo due to its definitive and transgressive nature.
Juliette Drouet actress, muse and mistress of Victor Hugo
At 14 rue Sainte-Anastase, from 1836 to 45 and at 12 from 1845 to 48, a few hundred meters from Place des Vosges, lived the muse and lover of Victor Hugo, Juliette Drouet née Julienne Gauvain.
Piccola Mia, the pizzas of the Republic
On the Place de la République, a brasserie with Italian accents has just opened, which quickly made people forget the old Pizza Pino. Welcome to Piccola Mia, the fruit of the joyful encounter between Italian chef Denny Imbroisi, pizza chef Julien Serri and mixologist Matthias Giroud who creates a creative cocktail menu.