THE FRENCH DISPATCH
We all kind of saw this coming, right? All year, amid the depressing chatter about the market downturn, there’s been this kind of puckish energy around Art Basel Paris. “I am really curious about Paris this year!” has been a common refrain from art types during these past months of feeble auctions and middling fairs. Writing from a brasserie near the Grand Palais, I can confirm that the air is a bit different here, as if the gloom missed its Eurostar train back in London. Several prominent gallerists told me that sales were better here than in Basel in June.
Comparing the European fairs has become a bit of a sport, in fact. Among the more entertaining case studies I have for you is the drastic difference in David Zwirner’s mood between London and Paris.
Last week, the blue-chipper’s booth was a victim of Frieze’s refreshed layout, which aimed to highlight up-and-coming galleries. Zwirner was positioned in the far back of the tent in Regent’s Park, with Gagosian’s swath of sculptures by former Zwirner artist Carol Bove (each priced at $850,000) effectively acting as its front yard. “I was a little taken aback,” a somewhat taciturn Zwirner told me then. “We’re usually in the way front…”
Cut to this Wednesday in Paris. Positioned front-and-center in the architectural confection that is the Grand Palais, Zwirner was in a noticeably more chipper mood. I asked him if he liked this fair’s layout better, to which he responded, “Are you kidding me?” One of his senior directors guffawed at my question.
Just as the fair opened, I got a flurry of tips that actress Natalie Portman was trawling the sun-drenched halls alongside director Cathy Yan. I’ve heard rumors that the Black Swan star’s presence at the fair wasn’t just for pleasure, that she was, in fact, conducting research for an upcoming role as an art dealer. I was unable to confirm this, but I am praying that it is true. We need a new art world movie—it has been five years since we got Velvet Buzzsaw! (Next time you run into me at a cocktail party, I’d be delighted to tell you about how much I love this movie for its camp horror, despite its mostly negative reception from the art world.)
Anyhow, there was plenty of activity outside of Art Basel proper. I could do a little ditty here regaling you about how all of the good parties were Surrealist themed. Sotheby’s had an extravagant bacchanal at its new Parisian auction house that turned art party “light bites” into true works of art, and Pace held an astrological salon, where readings were given to the likes of Sandy Rower and Hans Ulrich Obrist by an old friend of the column, the “art warlock” himself, Micki Pellerano. That was all loads of fun. But what really caught my eye throughout the week were the activities of dealers that just have that certain je ne sais quoi.
You know those galleries that you can’t quite put your finger on? You know, the ones that are emphatically itinerant, or are run by a fictional gallerist, or, say, only mount shows once in a blue moon? Well, many of those galleries decided to make appearances this week by hosting pop-up projects. Let me take you on a quick tour.
The week kicked off with three well-attended openings in Le Marais, hosted by three hard-to-pin-down gallerists. Monday evening belonged to Reena Spaulings, Tramps, and Micki Meng.
Reena, the non-existent dealer with spaces in New York and Los Angeles, popped up at the uber-cool Galerie Hussenot, presenting a grand-slam group show with work by Elizabeth Peyton, Kai Althoff, Jutta Koether, Kim Gordon, and Georgia Gardner Gray, among others. Well done, John Kelsey and Emily Sundblad.
Meanwhile, Tramps, which is run by artist Parinaz Mogadassi, was presenting a moody suite of paintings by Tim Breuer along with Champ Lacombe Biarritz, France-based gallery started by Lucy Chadwick. It’s the first we’ve heard from Tramps, which has had scrappy spaces in New York and London, since 2023.
The evening concluded next to the Centre Pompidou, where Meng hosted a pop-up show of paintings by Lauren Satlowski, followed by a dinner at her apartment. Meng (who has recently been quite outspoken about the art world) has unusual spaces in New York, San Francisco, and Paris, and brought out a real assortment of characters, including Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and curator Jens Hoffmann, who departed from the New York art world under a cloud of suspicion.
A while ago, I reported that Hoffmann was running a gallery (along with two imaginary co-founders that he termed his “spiritual co-pilots”) called Hoffmann+Maler+Wallenberg in Nice, France. Hoffmann confirmed to me that his gallery is still going strong, and when I mentioned that Meng’s gallery has a similar enigmatic aura around it, he said, “I think that’s very much how it should be.”
Cheers to Paris. See you next week back in New York City.
WE HEAR
The real invite to get this week in Paris was surely to David LaChapelle’s over-the-top synchronized swimming performance for Louboutin… The Hole is planning to scale back programming at its Los Angeles outpost (not officially closing, despite rumors)… Gagosian has listed a job for an assistant to a senior director in mysterious fashion—only a phone number is listed as the organization hunting for the position (also, weirdly, a perk of the job is pet insurance)… Pioneer Works has officially reopened after its renovation, and artist Moses Sumney, comedian Chris Rock, and several members of the Hearst family went to Red Hook to celebrate… And finally, DivaCorp is asking the question on every informed voter’s mind…
GRIEVANCES
Welcome back to Grievances, a safe space for art world professionals to throw up their hands and say, “Why?!” This week, I’ve invited my esteemed colleague Andrew Russeth into the mix. (He likes to complain!) He has an issue with galleries that print QR codes on their walls in lieu of offering printed texts. His argument:
“Few sights fill me with as much disgust as giant QR codes emblazoned on a gallery wall that I am invited to scan to pull up a press release and checklist. My main objection to them is that they are inelegant, ungainly, and ugly. They bring to mind supermarket checkouts—and, to be frank, the pandemic, which is when they began to proliferate. But they are also just deeply annoying. I want to look at art with a minimum of distractions, and now I have to look at my phone and pinch a PDF to try to get basic details about what is in front of me. Great. This may sound ridiculous, but the practice says to me: Instead of us giving you the information you need, go look it up yourself. I respect the desire to save paper, but I would happily settle for a laminated sheet, and talking to other gallery goers, I know that I am not alone. Thankfully, I am a credentialed (and entitled) member of the press, so I often ask for a printout. And I get it.”
What has been bothering you? Send your contribution to me at aarmstrong@artnet.com with the subject line “GRIEVANCES.”