La jeune fille dans la ville

The girl in the city: the city and modernity
February 17 – April 30, 2023
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 16, 6pm – 8pm

agnès b. is pleased to present La jeune fille dans la ville that will open on February 17 in New York. The new exhibition consists of twenty four photos that were originally shown at the Galerie du Jour in Paris in 1994 around the common theme of young girl in the city taken by prominent and well known photographers from different eras and different cities around the world. All photographs in the exhibition are from the agnès b. collection.

“For this exhibition, we asked photographers from several countries, of different generations and of different sensitivities, to show their vision of the young girl in the modern city. Historically, the emancipation of women coincided with the development of artistic avant-gardes and urbanist utopias. While the city tends to become the unique living environment of humanity, one can wonder about the representation of the young girl in the urban environment, about her social role and about the new meanings in the modern city of symbolism and traditional femininity.” - agnès b.

The agnès b. photography collection is renowned, made up of both prestigious photographers and new talents supported by the designer who is also a continued patron of the arts and gallery owner. In February 2020, agnès b. opened La Fab. in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, an arts center that currently houses the Galerie du Jour alongside the exhibition space that continuously shows artworks from her immense contemporary art collection.

Photographs in La jeune fille dans la ville were taken over a span of seven decades ranging from Eugene Atget in 1926, August Sander in 1935, Walker Evans in 1945, Robert Frank in 1955, Diane Arbus in 1967, Bernard Plusso in 1970, Bruce Gilden in 1989, and Nan Goldin in 1994.

Other photographers in the exhibition include Berenice Abbott, Martine Barrat, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Raymond Depardon, Alain Dister, Robert Doisneau, Martine Franck, Lucien Hervé, Steve Hiett, Sergio Larrain, Dominique Nabokov, Claude Nori, Eugene Richards, and Willy Ronis.

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré

March 11 – May 15, 2022
Opening Reception: Thursday March 10, (5-8pm)

agnès b. is pleased to announce a new exhibition by Ivorian artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in SoHo, New York. Set to open Friday, March 11, the exhibition is composed of 65 hand drawn poetic artworks by the revered African artist. The exhibition will coincide with Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound, a survey of his immense work that will be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, March 13 - August 13, 2022. This will be the first exhibition at MoMA devoted to an Ivorian artist.

Artworks in the Howard Street exhibition will include ballpoint pen and pencil drawings on cardboard, Bruly Bouabré’s medium of choice, and will classify under important topics of the artist’s body of work, including games, animals, fruits, tools, and also the dead, with eight works from the series A la découverte de nos morts devenus nuages : nuage oriental, (2001), which roughly translates to “Discovering our dead that have become clouds : Oriental clouds.”

Alongside these works, agnès b. will also offer the opportunity to discover precious Bruly Bouabré artworks from her personal art collection, including works on paper the artist realized especially for her and for his important series, Mythologie Bété, 2001 (Bété Mythology), in which Bruly Bouabré created a language for the Bété people.

As an early collector of his work, agnès b. has loaned one Bouabré artwork from her collection to the World Unbound exhibition. The artwork, Hommage aux femmes du monde, (2007), is a collection of 200 ballpoint pen and color pencil drawings on cardboard in the artist’s usual postcard size. This collection of drawings that celebrate women of the world were previously exhibited at the Collection Lambert in Avignon, France, in 2017 during the exhibition On aime l’art… ! featuring artworks from the agnès b. collection selected by Eric Mézil. A catalog of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound will be published by MoMA in May 2022.

Kamikaze exhibition

March 12 - April 30, 2021

agnès b. is pleased to present the Kamikaze exhibition by artist Roman Cieslewicz.

Roman Cieslewicz (1930-1996) was one of the greatest graphic designers of the second half of the 20th century. Born in Poland, he arrived in Paris in 1963, where he soon became artistic director of Elle magazine (1965-1969).

Roman Cieslewicz is particularly known for his posters, including those made for the Centre Pompidou, for his collages, including the Climate Change series and his famous Mona Tse-Tung, and his “revue d’information panique,” Kamikaze, the first issue of which was published by Christian Bourgois in 1973 and the following two by agnès b. in 1992 and 1997.

Bruno Gadenne, Eulogy for a Hornbill

September 7 - October 25, 2019

agnès b. is pleased to announce the solo exhibition Eulogy for a Hornbill by French artist Bruno Gadenne to open on Saturday, September 7, at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in New York. This will be the first exhibition in the US for the Paris-based artist.

In 2015, Gadenne spent three months traveling across Indonesia and Malaysia and became inspired by the landscape and colors of the area, particularly in Borneo. And it was in Borneo where he discovered the hornbill, noticeable by its brightly colored down-curved bill, which he observed from a platform in the trees. Gadenne began to use a new color palette inspired by his trip and the new colors are represented in the 16 paintings in the exhibition.

"For three months in 2015, I went to Indonesia and Malaysia, especially Borneo, where the hornbill is an emblem. I was lucky enough to see many of them in the various national parks that I went through while camping in the jungle, where the ideal way to observe them is to climb! Some of the observation platforms are 80 meters high, with ladders attached to the trunks to reach them. Every morning, a thick mist rises from the foliage, the heat of the rising sun comes back and raises this humidity in the air. The setting sun crossing this mist dyes the atmosphere with pink and orange tones, the air is palpable, the moist heat is almost suffocating, but a wonderful diaphanousness seizes the jungle. Inspired by this physical and optical phenomenon, I have renewed my palette, which is usually darker, to reflect this strangeness in the landscape. Between a radiant hallucination and a disturbing strangeness, I tried to make these landscapes both seductive and disturbing. Like so many other tropical species, these hornbills are in danger, due to poaching and massive deforestation. So I did not represent a single animal in the paintings presented here. Perhaps some still hide in the mist, between layers of oil paint. This exhibition is a way to honor them." Bruno Gadenne, August 2019

Curtis Kulig, Prize

October 11 - November 25, 2018

October 2, 2018, New York, NY...agnès b. is pleased to present the solo exhibition "PRIZE" by Curtis Kulig on view from October 11 to November 25, 2018. The artist’s reception takes place on Thursday, October 11 from 6-8pm at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in New York. This will be the first exhibition at the gallery with the New York-based artist who works primarily in painting, sculpture, drawing and photography.

This new exhibition features an installation that includes more than 30 drawings, ceramics, a large-scale painting, and a 8mm film in which Kulig has invited Aska Matsumiya to develop a soundscape. All of the work captures the nuanced movement of professional boxing. Like dancers, boxers exist in the physical moment—the body is their medium, and every gesture is an articulation of strategy. The end result is exhaustion, and Kulig’s poignant illustrations give the viewer a chance to linger quietly in suspended time. Through ink, pencil, paint and film, the artist honors and toys with the seriousness of boxing. It is only natural that these works—with their reverence for the human form—find a temporary home at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique. In mid-October, a 96-page artist book will be published by Pacific on the occasion of the exhibition, with an introduction by Curtis Kulig, an essay by Karen Wong and a story by Max Blagg. A companion vinyl album has been curated by Kulig and collaborator DJ Stretch Armstrong and will be released concurrently.

Curtis Kulig is best known for his iconic “Love Me” campaign that became a public art sensation and propelled him into the spotlight. With its message of hope and optimism, the slogan took on a life of its own, resulting in worldwide recognition and numerous successful commercial partnerships for the artist.
www.curtiskulig.com

Public Display Nº2

May 30 - July 29, 2018

A group show of screen prints and limited editions.

Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 30 (6-9pm) agnès b. is pleased to announce the opening of “Public Display Nº2” at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in Soho, NYC. Curated by agnès b. and ASVP, the group exhibition will feature screen prints and limited editions and will be the second gallery collaboration between the Paris-based designer and the Brooklyn-based duo. The exhibition opens May 30 and runs through July 8. www.asvp.nyc.

The 24 works in the exhibition beckon the outside in with prints and editions by Adam Lucas (NYC), ASVP (Brooklyn), BÄST (Brooklyn), Bisco Smith (NYC), Buff Monster (NYC), Chery (Paris), Eelco (Netherlands/NY), FAILE (Brooklyn), Hellbent (NY), Icy & Sot (NYC), Kraken (Paris), PIXOTE (Brooklyn), QRST (Brooklyn), and Ryan McGinness (NYC).

ASVP have been a staple in the New York City street art scene for almost a decade. BÄST is one of Brooklyn’s original street art forces, blending Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism into his day-glo tinged visions. Bisco Smith works in a variety of formats, from murals to canvas, known for his visual freestyle. Buff Monster makes the world a better place with bright colors, bold lines, and humor. Chery blends natural and urban elements into an inextricable bond with a hint of dark wit. EELCO is a Dutch street artist with a unique color palette he developed mostly on the streets. FAILE is a Brooklyn-based painting and printmaking collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, founded in 1999. Adam Lucas’s street art is blunt and forthright, using wit and subversion in his design.

Hellbent is known for his vibrant use of color and pattern. Icy & Sot live in Brooklyn by way of Iran, making work that uses public art to envision a world freed from borders, war, and violence. Kraken’s exquisitely painted or drawn works are an accumulation of human and animal body parts, collected and collaged from all sources, layered with human emotion. Ryan McGinness makes multidisciplinary work featuring logos, signs, and intricate patterns. Brazil-born PIXOTE has been in NYC since the 90s and has developed his own pixação-influenced style of script. QRST is Criminy Johnson whose work uses allegorical images often in an esoteric and cryptic manner.

Jared Buckhiester, Tom still hung fire.

March 3 - 31, 2018

agnès b. is pleased to present “Tom still hung fire.,” an exhibition of new works by New York artist Jared Buckhiester. For his first exhibition at the Howard Street gallery, Buckhiester has created a group of drawings and sculpture. “Tom still hung fire.” is a soup of symbolic fragments, which coalesce in a collection of suggestions. Utilizing the policeman, and pocket knife as a starting point to create form, Buckhiester employs fragmentation and a tender rendering to revise these heavily gendered representations into something far less sure-footed and sturdy.

In the sculpture Rope Boot Field, a block of oak stacks atop a base of red brick clay dug from the bottom of an abandoned clay pit. Resting on the block is a figurative clay fragment, atop that is another block holding a long slender slab like blade. Brass armature holds this teetering structure together forming a loose impression of a pocketknife. Standing beside these totemic assemblages are flattened figurative photo collages held upright in slotted wooden shoes. Photographs of policemen from various countries are used as fashion plates to create new bodies. This is a game of objectified desire, like a Tom of Finland playmate. Yet, what we are left with is not a sexualized body, but an assemblage of country, history, costume and gesture. The two sculptural suggestions sit next to one another like formal jokes and loving buddies. These three-dimensional works have a clear front and backsides. The back provides a strong formality, free of narrative rendering or figuration suggesting a stronger connection between the discreet objects.

The drawings in this show are a continuation of Buckhiester’s nuanced rendering with ink and watercolor with a combination of clear narrative representation and collaged fragments, and provide a backdrop of emotion for the sculptures. The handling of representation is varied, ranging from a highly rendered blade of a bowie knife to a bleeding and soft blue field holding the negative space of chain link. The combination of drawing and sculpture beckons an emotive response which floats among playful connections of costume, gender, gesture, and grief. A complicated interior breaks the surface creating a complexity that is always present when considering such difficult subjects as sexuality, history and country.
www.jaredbuckhiester.com

Jonas Mekas, A Dance with Fred Astaire

December 14, 2017

Book Signing with Jonas Mekas.

With readings by Jonas Mekas, Lizzi Bougatsos, and Stefan Bondell, and music by Dalius Naujo.

agnès b. and Anthology Editions are pleased to celebrate the launch of the new book by avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas, A Dance with Fred Astaire, during a book signing and reading at the agnès b. store in SoHo, New York, on Thursday, December 14, from 6-9pm. Additional readings by Stefan Bondell and Lizzi Bougatsos. An exhibition of original artwork signed by the artist featuring images from the book will also be for sale.

Whether he’s stealing Anaïs Nin’s cookies, living alongside Janis Joplin and Patti Smith in the Chelsea Hotel, contemplating life and death with Allen Ginsberg or meeting Timothy Leary, Arthur Miller, Lenny Bruce and so many more, legendary artist Jonas Mekas has spent 94 years weaving himself inextricably into the very fabric of postwar culture. In A Dance with Fred Astaire, Mekas recalls his many chance encounters, intimate exchanges and lasting friendships with some of the most iconic and beloved artists of the last century with wry wit, lyricism, and frankness. Guided by Mekas’s distinctive prose and suffused with warmth, A Dance with Fred Astaire is rhapsodic, poetic and funny as all get out.

A Dance with Fred Astaire is an extraordinary collection of anecdotes and rare ephemera featuring a dizzying cast of cultural icons both underground and mainstream, both obscure and celebrated. Memories and diary entries, conversations and insights into his work sit alongside collages of beautifully reproduced postcards, newspaper cuttings, film negatives, lists, posters and photographs, envelopes and letters, book covers, telegrams, cartoons and doodles. Mekas has kept and archived the artifacts of his life as a cultural touchstone down to the minutiae, all of which is brought together here in the form of a unique and fascinating scrapbook of a life lived with the highest artistic commitment.

Born in Lithuania in 1922, Jonas Mekas has lived a uniquely influential life as a filmmaker, writer, critic and poet. He survived a World War II labor camp and postwar displacement before immigrating to New York in 1949 to embark upon an extraordinary career in the arts, playing an instrumental role in the careers of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and numerous other iconic artists and hanging out with everyone from Maya Deren to John and Yoko, from Tiny Tim to Salvador Dalí, from the Kennedys to—yes—Fred Astaire.
www.jonasmekas.com

Selma Selman, You have no idea

February 5 – March 19, 2017

Curator’s Statement
Pierre Courtin, Sarajevo, January 2, 2017
I met Selma Selman for the first time in the Duplex 100m2 gallery in Sarajevo in 2013. Artist Mladen Miljanovic had organized a gallery visit for his students from the Banja Luka Art Academy. All students showed me their art portfolios; I still remember all of them, but I was particularly impressed by a young and very promising artist named Selma Selman.

As a personal diary, Selma Selman portrays her family and community life on metal pieces found in the streets: self-portraits, family scenes with her and her mother, portraits of all relatives but also a painting of a van Mercedes Benz. The paintings that will be on display represent something intimate, but they also speak of her family’s struggle to survive. There is the beauty of the family life but also the brutality of life in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Roma community without legal status.

The exhibition will also show some of the artist’s portrait photography. Closely linked to the video “Do not look into my Gypsy eyes,” the exhibition presents the photograph “Balcan,” a black and white portrait of the artist proudly posing, looking directly at the viewer. The context of this work is the representation of the female body as something that is most of the time hyper-sexualized. The aim is to portray a female body that was affected by traditional influences from both the society and country. 

The other two photographs titled “Mercedes 310” is a portrait of the artist in a white dress in front of the Mercedes truck of her father. The Mercedes truck refers to the stereotype of the relation between Roma community and the Mercedes brand; in the case of Selma it represents a vital element of the Selman family who works with iron and metal to make a living. The contrast between the artist posing like a model for a fashion magazine photo shoot, or for a wedding, deliberately links how she’s taking care of the truck and her own safety; the truck is like a “cocoon” and represents how she survived during her childhood and how her family still survives today.

During the exhibition opening, the artist will present the performance “You have no idea.” Very simply, in a “crescendo” move until her voice breaks, the artist will infinitely repeat the sentence “You have no idea.” As Selman nicely said, “Through my work, I hope to break down prejudice against Roma, as my art does not focus only on Roma, but on all human beings.”
www.selmaselman.com

Godlis, History Is Made At Night

September 10 – October 16, 2016

agnès b. is pleased to announce the new exhibition History Is Made At Night by photographer David Godlis at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in New York to coincide with the release of his fine art photography book of the same title. Forty years in the making, History Is Made At Night includes over 100 of Godlis’ most striking black and white images of the 1970’s punk bands, including The Ramones, Television, Blondie, Richard Hell, and Patti Smith, captured at New York City’s famed music club CBGB.

“Godlis loves the night - that absence of clear definition. His imagination was turned on like a radio, his camera lens a sensual receptor,” says filmmaker Jim Jarmusch in the book’s introduction. “You feel Godlis in his photos, his interests, and attractions; his love of music, of experiments, of artists and their creations, of those strange disheveled creatures of the night.”

“I showed up at CBGB in 1976 and continued shooting almost every night until 1979,” says photographer David Godlis. “For the people who were there, they tell me the pictures look exactly like what they remember. And for the people who weren’t there, I hope the pictures show them what it would have been like to be there. As an artist, that is all I could hope for.”

Images included in the exhibition, which were taken on the Bowery in New York City and at CBGB from 1976 – 1979, will be contemporary silver prints and vintage silver prints from the artist’s archive, all of which are included in the book. History Is Made At Night will be available for purchase at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique for $40.

David Godlis is a photographer and artist who captured iconic images of the original punk rock era. Starting as a street photographer inspired by mid-20th century figures like Diane Arbus, Robert Frank and Weegee, he was particularly influenced by Brassaï’s Paris by Night (1933) to take nighttime images using only natural light. It was this technique that secured now-historic photographs of the 1970’s punk bands at CBGB, including The Ramones, Television, Blondie, Richard Hell, and Patti Smith.
www.godlis.com

Ryan McGinness, Signals

May 1 - June 1, 2016

Signals, by New York artist Ryan McGinness, is an exhibition of icons used by McGinness on many different items, including a bag, wallpaper, coffee mugs, skateboards, and on a t-shirt included in the agnès b. Artist T-shirt collection.

Known for his use of graphics and iconography, McGinness took the idea of his icon designs from “Signs,” his installation of fifty fabricated street signs that were installed in the streets of downtown New York in the summer of 2014.

Produced by the New York City Department of Transportation, the street signs were installed along the route of the Summer Streets program, where seven miles of streets are designated car-free and open to the public to play, run, walk and bike.

The T-shirt McGinness created is a unique design with double sleeves, a short sleeve sewn over a long sleeve, meant to represent the way McGinness wore his t-shirts as a teen in his native Virginia Beach.

Inspired by early 90’s skate culture, the shirt was turned inside out to reveal the garment’s stitching, uneven effects and imperfections, and was printed using graphic icons in red, black, and white.

McGinness’s artworks have been previously shown at the Galerie du Jour agnès b. in Paris, in the group shows What About New York in 2003, Ugly Winners in 2006, and On Verra Bien in 2016. McGinness’s solo show, Multiverse, was exhibited at Galerie du Jour in 2004.
www.ryanmcginness.com

Pablo Jomaron & Benoit Aubard

October 31 – December 15, 2015

agnès b. is pleased to present the first exhibition in New York by artists Pablo Jomaron and Benoit Aubard. Jomaron and Aubard, art students from the Paris École des Beaux-Arts (respectively in their 3rd and 5th year) were awarded the 2015 Prix des Amis des Beaux Arts, presided by agnès b. As recipients of the prize, and working in publishing, creating fanzines and limited editions relating to urban areas and language, it was an obvious decision to organize an exhibition of their work at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in New York.

Pablo Jomaron writes about his work:
“When taking photos, I’m interested in capturing the reality in which I live, but also how other people live. My approach is not about documenting these moments as I usually ask people to pose. What comes out of these brief moments results in a sort of staged attitude. I’m not quite sure what to expect when I take pictures and I should say that my photography practice is not technically oriented. I think that what I’m really after when appropriating those places, moments, or an image, is to make sure that the people who live around me are real, and, by extension, provide me with the assurance of my own reality.

As a mixed media artist, whether using sculpture, collage, or other media, I select elements from this reality and use them in order to create something that could elicit a dream, an idea, an enquiry. Thus a new object, collage, or a new space is created. As for publishing, it is a way to communicate, even though showing my work can be demanding, this way of showing my photographs is less risky than printing a whole series of them. Such is the work. Assembling a book, I create an order, a way to show the work, a series is created, and it starts making sense. The printing process is equally important and, as much as possible, we do everything ourselves. Publishing allows collaborations with other people, and allows a different outlook on my own work as well as other people’s work. This collaborative work is important for me and I like it, it is conceived as a way to share the activity with others. Meeting different people and the friendship that develops are the reasons for the collaborations.”

Benoit Aubard writes about his work:
“I am interested in graffiti art, advertising, billboards and slogans, signage using text or words written in and for the public sphere that clamor for people’s attention as a fresh crop of words is created every day, barely noticed by anyone. Using cut-up style to write texts in French, I use a specific rule that is also used to design my posters. I use words and texts in English, as English is a more direct language used all over the world. I listen to rock music and I am attentive to lyrics.

The other aspect of my work shows my interest in publishing and cardboard boxes, as I duplicate the artworks using different printing techniques such as Xerox, lithography and xylography. Then the works are filed and stored in a box. I use recycled and re-used objects to write my texts on, and reveal the mixed use and aesthetical qualities of the ‘object’ and how it was used.”

Pat McCarthy, Slabs

March 26 - May 3, 2015

Like all printed matter, zines have a physical life span. Even when shelved by the most caring of reader, they naturally decay and die. This fragility gives them their voodoo, their authority to communicate in very intimate and immediate terms, full of emotion.

The entirety of the works featured in Slabs are literary constructs. Hand built dub versions of mass-distributed photocopied ephemera — of excerpted pages from the zines Born to Kill and Skirts, flyers, tattoo flashes, pin-ups — recontextualized as heirloom objects in slab form. That is, presented not on paper but on “hard rectangular surfaces” of varied and opposing materials and mediums. The pieces in Slabs are realized using universal technologies and very elemental materials — porcelain, cotton, steel, film photography, flesh. These works are created primarily on either white ceramic porcelain or black denim, maintaining the monochromatic visual aesthetics of the zine pages from which they are dubbed. Approximately 20 pieces will be presented, ranging in size, hung across 2 walls, in a classic cluster salon style. But this is not a crowded “survey” of recent work. This is a temporal sculpture of a single book. Written on the wall on the occasion of this exhibit.

The Porcelain Slabs are created by transferring a photocopy, using iron-rich toner, directly onto wet porcelain slabs. When kiln-fired, the black carbon burns away and the sepia-colored iron burns into the ceramic body, embedded permanently. Porcelain is an ancient technology, a material that retains its composition for thousands of years. Selecting zine pages to elevate as Hall-of-Famers, to canonize on stone, takes much consideration, as these slabs will outlive me 10-fold. Yet all it takes for this eternal marriage is the photocopier and the application of fire.

Black denim and bleach are two materials that I keep in abundance on the roof for tending to the pigeons and the coops. The “paintings” I create with them are a sort of photographic negative of both the paper and ceramic zines. It is the opposite craft of ritualized “edit and revision.” Here the first draft is eternal. Every gesture, every move, mark, and mistake, is exposed. Like a tattoo onto skin, all is a one-liner. And like flesh, these paintings will deteriorate. Wood and denim will warp and ultimately rot. Similarly, painting with bleach begets a personal consideration of mortality, the fumes stinging my lungs each time the brush is dipped.

In my zines there’s constant emphasis on place — place in very direct terms — an acknowledgment of what is under one’s feet at all moments; either it’s the street (Cheesebike), or the sky (Pigeoning), or the sea, or in bed (Skirts). When you’re hyper-focused on that, on your feet and on the slabs beneath your feet, everywhere becomes an experiment, a sculptural stage, or a poem. Pat McCarthy, Brooklyn, NY, March 22, 2015.

Jacques Floret, Red Ball

August 1 - September 7, 2014

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, we recently discovered Jacques Floret’s four-color ballpoint pen drawings. Floret was contacted by the London gallery Lazarides and asked to draw a few pictures, which would then be printed in the form of posters. He was given no other instructions than that. In front of him he had a good few sheets of drawing paper. So what subjects would look good on such a surface? He had carte blanche. However, the choice was clear – the simpler the better. Staring him in the face was the unquestionable favorite which hedonistic teenagers have used to adorn their rooms for decades: the pin-up. It was the obvious choice, by its very nature fulfilling the desire for the ordinary that Floret constantly seeks (he cannot rid himself of the obsession with questioning what is everyday and commonplace).

Without trying to invent anything, he contented himself with trawling through the hotchpotch of images displayed on our computer screens, and then retrieving those depicting scantily clad young women with mischievous smiles. He sorted them carefully, so that later he could find his way around them. He looked for their common features as wellas their differences, focusing first on the group of pin-ups who pose with an object then narrowing them down to those posing with a ball. He ensured consistency by cropping them so that the circumference of each ball was identical on every drawing. The last step is for him to transfer and color them without going over the edges.

Floret transfers and colors pictures he has chosen, creating a more or less faithful copy of the original. Some of his drawings are “clear line,” a style of drawing that uses strong lines of uniform importance. These are intended mainly for the press and for advertisements. Others are made using a 4-color ballpoint pen in repetitive fashion. The drawings are then usually exhibited in series, either in art spaces or sometimes in the houses of wealthy friends. Recently, he has been creating frescoes with felt-tip pens, the same sort used by children. When exposed to the light, these frescoes gradually disappear, to the great vexation of their owners. The exhibition consists of 12 drawings and 3 gicleé prints on Arches paper.

Abdelkader Benchamma, Simulacrum

May 1 - June 14, 2014

Armed with a gouache felt pen and ink, and no preliminary outline, Abdelkader Benchamma’s drawings are thought out like a story expanding from his visual work. His drawings border various techniques, from design to graphics, through comics and animation works. Benchamma invests entire rooms with wall drawings, mixed with text pieces. Both techniques are mixed, either completing or contradicting each other. Wandering characters, impossible accidents, rebellions against everyday items, snippets of sentences testifying to silence in a conversation, including examples of absurd poetry used as a possible answer to the limits of a unique reality.

On the occasion of his first solo show in the US, Benchamma will create a wall drawing at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique and will present a series of recent drawings, titled Rorschach in Marble, inspired by marble slabs normally found in churches. The infamous “Rorschach tests” appeal to the title of the exhibition. Simulacrum comes from the uncanny book Plan de evasión (1945) by Alfonso Bioy Casares, featuring carefully camouflaged islands, scenarios set within a paranoid and stressful atmosphere never letting the reader know if the narrator is at the limit of craziness or if it actually is just the island’s natural décor. And this is why Benchamma’s drawings resonate to this story. His drawings display a series of scenes that includes decors, apparitions, and settings. The fake, the simulation, the transformation, and the imitation participate to create a trouble, which is emphasized with the fineness and the delicate treatment in this series.

Born in 1975 in Mazamet, France, Abdelkader Benchamma lives and works in Montpellier and Paris. He has recently participated in several exhibitions, including The Future of a Promise at the 2011 Venice Biennale; in the group exhibition Told / Untold / Retold at the Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, in 2011; and his third solo exhibition Dark Matters at the Galerie du Jour agnès b. in Paris in 2011.

Works by Benchamma are included in Vitamin D2: New Perspectives in Drawing, Phaidon’s publication devoted to contemporary drawing. He is currently preparing his new book Random to be published in September 2014 by Edition L’association and Galerie du jour agnès b. An upcoming exhibition is scheduled for October 2014 at the Carré Sainte-Anne in Montpellier in October 2014 and in March 2015, Benchamma will exhibit new wall drawings at the Drawing Center in New York.

Many Photographers and "The Snap Cardigan"!!

February 14 - March 30, 2014

This signature design, originally created by agnès b. in 1979 at her Paris boutique at 3 rue du Jour, has become a timeless classic. Originally unisex, its immense success has since been adapted for all shapes and sizes. The snap cardigan is now an emblem of agnès b. style, reflecting her type of fashion: a fashion that is for living and alive with the spirit of the times; a wardrobe adapted to each and every personality, which will last for a long time. Asked about the snap cardigan, agnès b. says, “A long time ago, I designed a cardigan for myself. I wanted a sweatshirt that opened down the front, with a lot of press studs so that it looked like something from the Renaissance, a piece of children’s clothing for grown-ups or vice versa.”

In 1986, during the Paris Month of Photography, agnès b. invited photographers to create an image using her iconic snap cardigan. Many great photographers, including Martine Franck, Steve Hiett, Dominique Isserman, Jean Baptiste Mondino and Gilles Bensimon, devoted their talents to the game. Each photographer created their own vision of this iconic piece, which over time has become an indispensable part of our wardrobe. The photographs were exhibited at the Galerie du Jour in Paris.

Seventy other photographers, including Peter Lindbergh, Bernard Plossu, Brigitte Lacombe, Jean Luc Moulène, Jean Christian Bourcart, Jean Loup Sieff, and Michael O’Brien, were included in the exhibition when their photos were shown as part of the exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in May 1996.

Today, agnès b. has given these photographs a new and more intimate life, enriched by adding new photographs by photographers Christophe Lebourg, Hananyo, Jean Bourgois, Sakiko Nomura, Marion Poussier, Wai Kit Lam… Eighty five photographs from the exhibition “Des photographes et le cardigan pression” will be exhibited simultaneously at the agnès b. boutiques in New York at 50 Howard Street, 1063 Madison Avenue, and 13 East 16th Street.

Perfect Futur, Retro Futurisme

September 14 - November 10, 2013

The intense fascination for the future revealed by certain past works is reciprocated by the equally intense appeal that these past works have for contemporary artists, notably through the historical form of modernism. From the way in which we previously imagined the future, and the retrospective gaze that the present era levels at the past – particularly at its vision of modernity and its often naive or fantastical anticipation of the future – come the questions behind the exhibition.

Structured around the themes of retrofuturism, steampunk and archeomo- dernism – a concept developed by the academic, critic and curator Arnauld Pierre - the exhibition FUTURE PERFECT aims to create a dia- logue between past cultural output that imagined the future – what is essentially our postmodern era – with work from contemporary ar- tists, which in both form and substance refer to the past by revisiting and reviving certain visions of the future or of modernity, generated mainly between the last third of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

The exhibition takes a transversal approach, intersecting different aesthetic and temporal veins. A selection of work from contemporary artists will be grouped with older work and documents – each giving perspective to the others. In addition, one section will be dedicated to cinema and another to the various accessories, devices and artefacts developed by the steampunk community. In a separate section, the exhibition will also include the first French retrospective of the American magazine Retrofuturism, in the form of an installation designed by its originator, the artist and editor Lloyd Dunn.

The dynamic explored here rests on a continual shifting back and forth between the past and the future, veri- table time travels through creation. These shifts in time, which are brought up to our progressive present by bringing together the cultural output of different eras, are nonetheless defined by a sensibility, an aesthetic and shared interests.

Lucien Hervé, Le Corbusier in India

May 10 - June 30, 2013

agnès b. is pleased to present Le Corbusier in India, a photography exhibition of rare signed vintage and modern prints by Lucien Hervé, who has been represented by Galerie du Jour agnès b. Paris since 1993. A self-taught photographer, Lucien Hervé began working with the maverick architect Le Corbusier in 1949. As the “official” Le Corbusier photographer, Hervé documented the architect’s work and projects until Le Corbusier’s death in 1965. Le Corbusier once said, “Not only your remarkable vision of my work makes it more complete, but you have the soul of an architect and know how to look at architecture.”

During the 16 years they worked together, Hervé took thousands of photographs of Le Corbusier’s projects. All of the photographs in this exhibition were taken during two trips to India, one in 1955 and one in 1961. During this time he photographed the Ahmedabad Mill Owner’s Association Building (1951) and the Villa Shodhan (1951). In Chandigarh, he photographed the High Court of Justice (1952), the Secretariat Building (1952) and the Palace of the Assembly (1955), which Le Corbusier considered his greatest work. Photographing one of the most spectacular “new cities”of the 20th century, Hervé also observed the ongoing construction sites for which he developed a more “humanistic” approach. He recognized how his collaboration with Le Corbusier was critical for his own work, “With Le Corbusier I learned to discern and identify beauty in its nascent form, along with a need for total purity, this notion forced me to work with rigor and precision.”

The exhibition Lucien Hervé: Le Corbusier in India explores two aspects: the humanistic vision, as well as the architectural dimension. Favoring high and side angle views, a deliberate affinity for abstraction and the use of stark blacks and whites are characteristics of Lucien Hervé’s very personal style. Noted for his sharp sense of framing and formal elegance, Hervé patiently built one of the major photographic oeuvre of the 20th century. He has long been celebrated for his exceptional artistry as well as his prolific output.

About Lucien Hervé

Born on August 7, 1910 in Hungary, László Elkán moved to Paris in 1929. First attracted to painting, music and fashion, he started to work as a photographer for Marianne Magazine. His career took a decisive turn when he met Le Corbusier in 1949, remaining his “official” photographer until Le Corbusier died in 1965. Hervé is recognized as one of the greatest architecture photographers of our time. He worked with world-renowned architects such as Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Jean Prouvé and Oscar Niemeyer, to name a few. In a career spanning sixty years, Hervé has had countless gallery and museum exhibitions all over the world; his work is documented in several catalogues and publications in various languages. Lucien Hervé died in Paris on June 26, 2007, at the age of 97.

www.lucienherve.com

Public Display, Group Show

September 8 - October 14, 2012

August 31, 2012 (NEW YORK) agnès b. is pleased to announce the opening of Public Display, a group exhibition curated by New York-based artistic team ASVP. The exhibition will feature printed works by nine international street artists; D*Face (London, UK), Faile (Brooklyn), Gaia (Baltimore), Hellbent (Brooklyn), Invader (Paris, FR), Miss Bugs (Bristol, UK), ND’A (Brooklyn), QRST (Brooklyn), and ASVP (New York).

Inspired by graffiti and street art, agnès b. has been taking pictures of artworks in the streets of her native Paris, Manhattan and Brooklyn for many years. This is how she first noticed works by ASVP and was intrigued and compelled to work with the duo. The exhibition will feature some well known names from the Street Art world as well as a number of up-and-coming artists that are showing strong promise with collectors and critics alike.

www.asvp.nyc

Malick Sidibé, Solo Show

April 13 - June 3, 2012

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the agnès b. Galerie Boutique, agnès b. is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Malian photographer, Malick Sidibé.

The exhibition features a selection of Sidibé's street and nightlife images from the 1960's and 1970's. In 1957, Sidibé opened a photography studio in the heart of Bamako, the capital city of Mali and he began documenting the exuberant social and cultural scene of the time. Stylish young people were learning the new dances from Europe and Cuba, experimenting with fashion and throwing spontaneous dance parties at clubs and on the banks of the Niger River. One of the most visible personalities was couturier, Amadou Ballo, who is featured prominently in the exhibition. Ballo's style set the bar for local youth competing for the most fashionable outfit and each week, Ballo made a point to go to Studio Malick to have a photo taken of each outfit. Sidibé was the only photographer documenting this vibrant period before Mali's independence from France in 1960 and his work gave birth to a new generation of photographers. agnès b. met Malick Sidibé in 1995 at his exhibition at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris and a longstanding friendship was formed. She has represented Malick Sidibé since 1998 at her Paris gallery, Galerie du Jour, located close to the Pompidou Center.

About Malick Sibidé, by André Magnin
Malick Sidibé was born in a small village in Mali in 1935. He graduated with a degree in draftsmanship in 1955, from the School of Sudanese Craftsmen in Bamako, Mali. He began studying photography and opened 'Studio Malick' in Bamako in 1957. After the 1970's, he focused on studio photography and is now an internationally recognized photographer whose work is held in the collections of major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Sidibé has received numerous awards: Hasselblad Award (2003), Venice Biennale's Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement (2007) and the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement (2008). 

Massimo Vitali, Photographs

December 10 - January 22, 2012

agnès b. is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Italian photographer Massimo Vitali at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in Soho. The exhibition features large-scale photographs from Italy, Turkey and Germany and provides a selection of his work from 2004 – 2011.

At the opening reception, Massimo Vitali will be signing editions of two recently published books, Natural Habitats and Landscape with Figures (revised second edition). A widely celebrated best-seller, Landscape with Figures was first published in 2004. Large-scale color images of ski resorts and swimming pools from across the globe, focuses on the relation of the human figure to the landscape. The revised second edition uses significantly improved scanning technology and is formatted to match the size of the second volume of Massimo Vitali’s complete works, Natural Habitats. Natural Habitats is comprised of 70 photographs, spanning from 2004 – 2009 and includes a “genealog-ical tree” of his photographs; 120 thumbnail images which make visual connections by color, composition and time.

agnès b. first discovered Vitali’s photographs during the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles 1998, where his work was being shown at the Abbaye de Montmajour. Agnès b. began collecting his work for her own collection in 1998 and since 1999 Massimo Vitali has been represented in Paris by the Galerie du Jour agnès b.

This is Massimo Vitali’s seventh exhibition with agnès b. and his first show at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in NYC. The show is an exciting collaboration on behalf of the artist with Bonni Benrubi Gallery at 41 East 57th Street who will have a concurrent solo exhibition of Vitali’s recent work, entitled ‘Arcadian Remains’.

Massimo Vitali was born in Como, Italy, in 1944. He began his career as a photojournalist and worked as a cinematographer for television and cinema in the 1980s. In 1994, Vitali went on to pursue his own vision as a contemporary photographer. His work is represented in major public and private collections around the world and has been the subject of several monographs and museum retrospectives.
www.massimovitali.com

Certain Young French Photography and Drawings, Group Show

July 14 - September 17, 2011

"Certain Young French Photography" focuses on photographers recently recognized by agnès b. through her involvement with the Friends of Paris Beaux-Arts School Association and the Lucien and Rodolphe Hervé Association, whose work agnès b. has long supported.

The seven photographers, Luna Picoli-Truffaut, Marc Cellier, Claudia Imbert, Nicolas Dhervilliers, Claire Adelfang, Matthias Olmeta and Leonard Bourgois-Beaulieu, all take a singular approach to their surroundings and develop other 'invented realities' that manifest their idiosynchrasier. Most of them deal with portrait: celebrities and unknowns are shot with an evident affection for the sitters a provincial street under the rain brings to mind Atget and Brassai.

In addition, three artists using drawing are associated with the show; Lionel Avignon, a new artist recently discovered by agnès b.; Abdelkader Benchamma who has been represented by the Galerie du Jour for more than six years; and Kiki & Loulou Picasso, a duo who have worked and shown at the Galerie du Jour since the mid 1980s.

In their works, portraits are also featured predominantly, presenting people and issues of contemporary in a critical or ironic way, as well as aiming to draw the contours of a re-invented planet. In presenting photography and drawing for our second inaugural exhibition, an attempt is made to confront and coalesce the two mediums, discretely hinting at the most eminent figure of French photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson, who in his later years all but abandoned photography and never stopped drawing.

The gallery also features a furniture installation by the Brooklyn-based architectural firm Interboro Partners. The installation coincides with “Holding Pattern” at MoMA PS1 during Warm Up on Saturdays in Long Island City, NY which features an outdoor courtyard designed by Interboro Partners, winners of the Young Architect Program 2011.