Claudine Papillon Gallery — À propos — Slash Paris

Reputably loyal to commitments never fake, Claudine Papillon Gallery maintains priviledged long-term relationships with its artists.

Erik Dietman, Dieter Roth and Hreinn Fridfinnsson, whose work was considered marginal in their beginnings, but quickly became referential and almost classical for the contemporary art scene, have become emblematic of our gallery. In 1989, when she opened her own space, Claudine Papillon was determined to promote the diversity and wealth of the French contemporary scene. Françoise Vergier who had a solo exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1995, Thierry Mouillé, Award winner of the Villa Medici in 2007-08, Vassiliki Tsekoura, a Greek artist living in Paris, Frédéric Lecomte, Jean-Claude Ruggirello, and Elsa Sahal, a resident of the national Manufacture of Sèvres in 2008/2008, then of Alfred University, New York State College of Ceramics in 2009-2010, have integrated our gallery between 1989 and 2000.

Patrick Caulfield and Günter Brus, symbolic figures of the artistic scene of the 1970’s, joined the gallery respectively in 1993 and 1998.
Madame Papillon thus continually diversifies her team, welcoming those artists who share her sensibilities, her sense of poetry and humor, her audacity and sense of anti-conformity.

Confronted with vivacious work of very young artists, Claudine Papillon organized solo shows which allowed them almost instant recognition. Frédérique Loutz, who participated at the second Parisian Triennial “La force de l’art”, and was nominated for the Drawing Prize of Daniel and Florence Guerlain Foundation, along with François Ribes now have their work in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Modern Art, Paris. With Gaëlle Chotard, Grégoire Bergeret and Sammy Engramer, the gallery affirms itself as an important advocate of the emerging French scene. In 2009, mid-career Didier Trenet also decided to join in.

The Claudine Papillon Gallery pursues an active exploration of the international art scene. Javier Pérez, who represented Spain at the Venice Biennale in 2001, and Lotta Hannerz, a Swedish artist now living in Paris after a two-year internship in participation with the Suisse Academy of Arts, have equally joined the gallery.

Claudine Papillon, an art historian, has been working as an art dealer since 1976. Until 1986, she co-directed with Ninon Robelin the BAMA gallery, where she organized the first solo exhibitions of Joseph Beuys and Sigmar Polke in Paris. She was a strong proponent of the Fluxus movement along with Robert Filliou, George Brecht, and Wolf Vostel. In 1989, with her own showroom on the rue Turenne, she programmed Michael Craig Martin, and the Parisian exhibitions of Phillip Parreno and Vik Muniz. Located since 2004 in a 250-m2 showroom in the Marais, she now works with her daughter, Marion Papillon, who joined the gallery in 2007 with the ambition to promote and reinforce the specific dynamic of the Gallery.