
Galerie Boutique
50 Howard Street NYC
The agnès b. Galerie Boutique is located at 50 Howard Street in SoHo, NYC. Originally opened in 2011, the NYC flagship easily mixes fashion and art in a unique setting. In addition to the seasonal men's and women's collections, the Galerie Boutique also focuses on contemporary exhibitions throughout the year. Other agnès b. Galerie Boutiques operate in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Marseille.
agnès b. is a privately owned, family-operated company founded in 1975 that today includes 282 stores worldwide, two contemporary art galleries, a hybrid art periodical, le Point d'Ironie. In 2009, JRP-Ringier published Collection agnès b., a 356-page art book that highlights more than 300 pieces of artwork from agnès b.'s personal art collection. In 2019, Abrams published agnès b. STYLISTE, a 288-page cloth-bound book that offers a unique look at the agnès b. universe. agnès b. recently opened La Fab. in the 13th arrondissement of Paris as a new contemporary art location to present works from her collection, as well as the new home of the Galerie du Jour and the gallery's bookshop, Librairie du Jour.
agnès b. 50 Howard Street, New York, NY 10013
Monday - Tuesday: 11am - 6pm
Wednesday - Saturday: 11am - 7pm
Sunday: 12pm - 6pm
Contact: 212 431-1335 / howard@agnesb.net
Press enquiries: presse@agnesb.net
Gallery enquiries: info@agnesb.net

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.

Les drôlesses comes to the agnès b. Galerie Boutique
September 8 – November 6, 2022
Opening reception: Thursday, September 8, 6-8pm
During the lockdown of 2020, agnès b. began to take photographs using two portraits by French artist Claire Tabouret, dressing them up with clothing from her own wardrobe. The result is the exhibition, les drôlesses.
Through these images, les drôlesses tells the story of the mischievous agnès and the timeless pieces she has created that have made the brand the iconic label that it is today.
“In 2016, I purchased these two portraits, overwhelmed by their presence and their famous ‘off-camera’ gaze that makes them quite secret.” – agnès b.
The images reflect her childhood, her relationship with art, and more than 40 years of passion for photography, design, and art that are integral to agnès b.
“My father Ado Troublé, who had three daughters within four years, would sometimes say to us, ‘come my drôlesses.’ That’s why my two ‘models,’ my two friends from the lockdown in spring 2020 are called that… they kept me company, inspired me, and made me happy.” – agnès b.
A 120-page les drôlesses catalog published in 2021 and will be available during the exhibition at agnès b. New York stores and online. For each catalog sold, 4 euros will be donated to Secours Populaire, a French non-profit organization founded in 1945 dedicated to fighting poverty and discrimination in public life

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.

Athena by Chad Moore for agnès b.
August 18 - September 26, 2021.
In July 2021, New York-based photographer Chad Moore visited the agnès b. store on Howard Street in SoHo and borrowed items for an impromptu photoshoot with his friend Athena. The photos are a spontaneous series of color photographs aboard the Staten Island Ferry taken during the late summer hours.
Featuring the iconic star t-shirt from the Les Forevers collection, a line of permanent items available year round, ten photographs from the series will be on display at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in SoHo from August 18 through September 26, 2021. agnès b. first discovered Chad’s work after he dropped off a copy of his book, June, at her hotel during a stay in New York. She admired his work for the spontaneity in the way he photographed his friends and the people around him.
A native of Tampa, Florida, Moore grew up riding BMX bikes and moved to New York in 2008. He was soon taking photos of his friends on the Lower East Side and from the rooftop of his Chinatown apartment. In 2013, Moore had his first exhibition in Amsterdam and released his first book, Thirteen, which is now a hard to find collector’s item.
After solo exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, and London, Moore showed photographs at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in the exhibition, Whatever’s In Me Is Whatever’s In You, in 2017. Other exhibitions with agnès b. followed, including Too Late, So Soon, in Paris in 2017; Wilt, in Hong Kong in 2018; and Memoria, in Tokyo in 2019, which also saw the publication of the book of the same name; and a group show, Cinéastes et photographes américains représentés par La Galerie du Jour agnès b. in Paris in 2021.

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.

Books, Zines, and Prints!
December 5, 2019 - February 28, 2020
Our pop up bookshop is now open with books, zines, prints, drawings, and more! Stop by to see what's in store agnès b. Galerie Boutique 50 Howard Street NYC.
A rare and limited edition book shop from independent publishers and artists at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique
With books and zines by publishers Nieves Books, Colpa Press, Anthology, Swiss Institute, agnès b., Roger Gastman, Innen, Red Lebanese, Paper Works, Let’s Panic, Gayletter, Auto Body, Périphérie.
And artists Pablo Jomaron, Ryan McGinness, Craig Costello, José Parlá, Rey Parlá, Jonas Mekas, Taj Francois, Tenzin Miyahira, Djiby Kebe, Kingsley Ifill, Stefan Marx, Panayiotis Terzis, Shara Hughes, Theo Campredon, Malik Kirkwood, Anthony Jamari Thomas, and more.
Limited edition markers and box sets by Krink. Artworks and prints by David Ellis and Lance de los Reyes, and more.

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

auto b. by Auto Body Group Show
June 6 - August 25, 2019
agnès b. and Auto Body are pleased to present auto b., a group show featuring eight artists and designers at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in Soho, NYC. The installation will include the work of Dana Davis, Nathaniel de Large, Kevin Evans, Juan Jose Heredia, Valerie Kamen, Hayley Martell, LQQK Studio, and Marion Vallerin and will be on view from June 6 – August 25, 2019.
In the playful and collective spirit of the age-old drawing game, ‘cadavre exquis’, each New York-based artist and designer has been given a letter from which to create a work. While each participant works in varying scales and mediums of graphic design, sculpture, screen-printing, painting, and textiles, the collection of assembled works come together to spell out Auto Body’s namesake. In addition to the show, a limited edition tee-shirt collaboration between agnès b. and Auto Body and hand silk screened by LQQK Studios will be available for purchase.

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

Rostarr, Pareidolic Behaviour
August 9 - October 7, 2018
agnès b. is pleased to present Pareidolic Behaviour by Romon “Rostarr” Yang at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in Soho, NY. The exhibition will include drawings taken from his sketchbook, neons created from drawings, and a mural painted especially for the occasion. This will be Rostarr’s first solo exhibition at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique and follows previous exhibitions and group shows with agnès b. in New York, Paris, and Tokyo.
Drawings in the exhibition date from 2000 – 2018. Each drawing is unique and abstract. In his drawings, Rostarr will use pen, marker, or pencil to create both imaginary and recognizable characters. The drawings can include colors of red, green, blue, or black against a white background or bold black lines. Some drawings are colored over with calligraphy-style drawings, or outlined in red, while others are left simple and clean.
The neon lights in the exhibition are taken from sketchbook drawings. One drawing is a simple outline of a man’s profile. The other drawing is of an imaginary mystic creature in red and white. In both drawings, the lines are simple, revealing curiosities. The mural in the show will be spontaneously drawn on a 15 foot wall maintaining the artist’s graffiti- and calligraphy-influenced freehand style.
agnès b. first met Rostarr in NYC in the early 2000s, where she recognized his unique style. In 2002, agnès b. offered an empty space on Greene Street to Rostarr, Lee Quinones and Jose Parla, for an exhibition titled Boomerang, which was their way of showing a city on the mend after the events that took place in September the year before. The show featured over-sized works from the three artists, works that were detailed, abstract, and graphic. It was their way to show that New York was bouncing back. The three works are now in agnès b.’s personal art collection.
Romon "Rostarr" Yang is a multidisciplinary artist in painting, abstract calligraphy, large scale murals and experimental filmmaking. Born in South Korea in 1971, at the age of one, his family immigrated to Washington D.C. and in 1989 he moved to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts, where he majored in graphic design and printmaking. Always creating in a spontaneous manner, he is continually striving to find freedom within style, medium and form, and building upon the iconographic visual language he terms ‘Graphysics,’ a word that exemplifies the geometric dynamism characteristic in his work. Rostarr is also a founding member of the art collective Barnstormers, established in 1999 by David Ellis and comprised of more than 30 artists from NYC & Tokyo. Rostarr lives and works in New York City.
www.rostarr.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.

JonOne in Gotham
April 3 – May 20, 2018
agnès b. is pleased to announce a group exhibition to coincide with the launch of items inspired by JonOne for her Spring/Summer 2018 collection. The exhibition will consist of three large paintings by JonOne and other artworks from The 156 Allstarz.
John “JonOne” Perello first began to paint on New York City subway trains, which according to him, are "museums that cross the city." He soon made a name for his style and created abstract works influenced by movement, color and the energy of the city. His style set him apart from others as, at that time, the majority of other graffiti writers were working in more figurative styles. JonOne’s work explodes with energy and colors and the artist himself sees his art as ‘abstract expressionist graffiti.’
JonOne moved to Paris in 1987 where he began to work on movement, color, freedom of his line, between abstract art and street spirit, revealing his imagination and his optimistic vision of society. He met agnès b. and first showed his work at the Galerie du Jour in 1989. Their friendship has resulted in numerous collaborations, including exhibitions at the Galerie du Jour, live paintings, books, and Artists T-shirts.
The exhibition at 50 Howard Street will consist of three large canvases painted by JonOne. He has also invited other artists from The 156 Allstarz to participate in the show, including Faust, Gorey, Omni, Criz, Snatch, Sharp, and Jez, who have created works especially for the exhibition.
Today, JonOne is globally recognized by his unique style that brings together hip hop, graffiti, and street art. His distinct and colorful style is both chaotic and composed. His work has been exhibited in a wide range of solo and group exhibitions around the world, including Tokyo, Monaco, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Moscow, Rome, Miami and Zurich. JonOne lives and works in Paris, France.
www.jonone.com

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

Tommy Malekoff
February 1 to 28, 2018
agnès b. is pleased to announce an exhibition of short films and photographs by the artist Tommy Malekoff at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in SoHo. Four films will play in the gallery on continual loop.
The Outdoor World, 2016 - a short film set in Memphis, Tennessee, a city named after the ancient capital of Egypt. The film is centered around a giant steel pyramid and draws cultural connections between the two places that go beyond their nominal association. The Outdoor World features an original score by musician Joe Williams.
Untitled Home Videos, 2016 - a collection of video recordings from the artists’ cell phone, randomized and edited in the form of a diary or journal.
Perennial Shadows, 2017 - a short film about kudzu, an invasive vine native to Japan that grows rampant in the American South. Shot throughout various locations in North Carolina, Perennial Shadows explores different ways in which kudzu can totally consume the landscape of a town. The film features an original score by Joe Williams and a voiceover by musician Project Pat.
A fourth screen in the exhibition will feature an exclusive trailer for the artists’ upcoming film on American parking lots, as well as color photographs that were taken in correspondence with the films being shown.
Tommy Malekoff (b. 1992) is a New York based visual artist from North Carolina. His work with video and photography deals with insular worlds and displaced phenomenons in the American landscape. His work has been exhibited in New York, Detroit, and Tokyo.
www.tommymalekoff.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

Craig Costello, WHQ
April 6 - May 28, 2017
agnès b. is pleased to announce the publication of WHQ, a book of photographs by New York artist Craig Costello. WHQ features portraits of over 50 artists and friends who visited the Krink studio from 2014 – 2017, affectionately referred to as “The WHQ.” The 96-page book includes a foreword by fellow artist Stephen Powers. WHQ is a glimpse into a culture of creatives, showcasing their style and personality. Each photograph was made in front of the studio’s door, which became the established set.
The door served not only as a static backdrop, but also a colorful, collaborative canvas. Curated by Costello, the door gradually collected the marks left by friends invited to write and draw using Krink markers. The door, now a completed work, will be installed and on view at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in NYC, April 6 – May 28, 2017.
Accompanying the installation and release is a new limited edition sticker: WHQ (Wall Vinyl), 2017, ink jet on adhesive vinyl, 83 x 40 inches, edition of 20. A 1:1 representation of the door, WHQ (Wall Vinyl) is a unique edition with a trompe l’oeil effect. In conjunction with the book’s publication, agnès b. and Krink will release 3 limited edition t-shirts and one tote bag as part of the agnès b. Artists T-shirt collection, a prestigious, collaborative series established in 1994 that has included artists such as Félix González-Torres, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Harmony Korine. The agnès b. x Krink t-shirts and tote bag feature designs that are a reflection of the Krink studio, from studio drawings made with Krink markers to original art work by Costello. A selection of new works on paper by Costello will be exhibited alongside the release of WHQ and collaboration with agnès b. Known for his large-scale, site-specific installations, Costello explores working more contained, limiting himself to the space of his studio and the size of his paper.
Craig Costello is the owner and operator of Krink Inc. He is also an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Painting primarily in a large format, he has exhibited in galleries and museums, including Palais De Tokyo (Paris, France), Les Abattoirs (Toulouse, France), Deitch Projects (New York, NY), and Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA). Costello has created site-specific works around the globe including Berlin, Paris, Sydney, Taipei, and London. To view more of his work, please visit craigcostello.nyc.
Krink is a Brooklyn-based company offering a collection of high quality markers and inks unique to the market in their style and history. What started as products created to fit the specific needs of urban artists has grown into a range of creative tools. In addition, Krink creates limited edition, one-of-a-kind products with iconic brands, such as Nike, Casio and Coach. Handmade in the USA.
www.krink.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

Maripol, Downtown Divas
November 20, 2016 - January 2, 2017
agnès b. is pleased to announce the exhibition Downtown Divas by Maripol, a collection of Polaroids taken in New York in the late 70s and early 80s by designer, stylist, and photographer Maripol. Works in the exhibition, which include large format Polaroids printed on museum paper or screen printed on canvas, are taken from the photographer’s personal collection of prominent figures in the early downtown art scene, as well as distorted self-portraits, and other images. Many images in the exhibition have never been shown before.
As a prominent figure of the era, who can often be described as “the gatekeeper of ‘80s club culture,” French-born Maripol effortlessly took stylish Polaroid images to document one of the most vibrant times of New York City’s artistic history. Working as a designer and photographer, she captured moments of characters that frequented Studio 54, Mudd Club, and Danceteria, including Deborah Harry, Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Grace Jones.
Maripol arrived to New York from France in 1976. She took her first Polaroid photograph in 1977 and for many years she would rarely be without her SX-70 Polaroid camera. Within a year, she landed the position of designer at the hip Italian fashion label Fiorucci, where she would later become art director.
In 1979, Maripol first met Jean-Michel Basquiat, a 19-year old painter and graffiti artist, and the two would soon become close acquaintances. As part of a developing project to record the faces of the ‘downtown underground,’ Basquiat was featured in a number of her Polaroids. Around the same time, Maripol also founded the accessory design company, Maripolitan, partly because she was unable to find accessories she liked to photograph. Many of her pieces would become instantly recognizable classics of the period, including crucifixes, earring and rubber bracelets, which she adorned young Madonna with.
Today, Maripol continues to design, create jewelry, and take Polaroids. She was recently hired by fashion houses Dior, Valentino and Hugo Boss to document their creations with her faithful Polaroid camera and create short animation films with them for social media. Maripol’s early Polaroids have been published in books, including Maripolarama in 2006 and Little Red Riding Hood in 2010, and a new book is in the works.
www.maripolitan.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

T.shirts d'artistes, Group Show
June 16 - July 31, 2016
From the beginning, in her first boutique on Rue du Jour in Paris, agnès b. often made T-shirts printed with drawings and slogans. In those days, they were all different silkscreen prints made in various colors and sizes.
But it was actually a proposition by Felix Gonzalez Torres in 1994 that inspired the Artist’s T-shirts collection. He proposed the simple sentence “nobody owns me” to be printed on the back of a T-shirt. Printed in a limited edition of 100, the T-shirt is now a collector’s item.
agnès b. has since continued the collection and added a label indicating the name of the artist who made it. Today, she often works with the artist to choose the image, design, color and details. The T-shirt are produced in limited edition, with some destined to become “collectors.”

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

Bruce Weber, A “present” to agnès b.
February 17 – April 16, 2016
agnès b. is pleased to present an exhibition of 70 original black and white photographs by Bruce Weber at all three agnès b. locations in New York. The opening reception will take place at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique at 50 Howard Street on Tuesday, February 16, 6 – 8 pm. The exhibition will continue at 13 East 16 Street and 1063 Madison Avenue from Wednesday, February 17 through April 16, 2016.
In 1983, before being too well-known, Weber first met agnès b. at her Prince Street store who lent him clothes for a fashion photo shoot. Following this photo shoot, Weber sent all of the photos to agnès b., with a word of thanks… and the beginning of a special friendship was born. The 70 black and white photos in the exhibition are the results from that photo shoot.
agnès b. has had a continued presence in SoHo since opening her first boutique there in 1980. She was drawn to the area that was, at the time, full of warehouses and artists’ studios housed in cast-iron buildings. She admired the beauty of the area and the feeling of downtown New York.
The current location at 50 Howard Street is comprised of a gallery and boutique space, mixing art, music, film, and fashion within a retail environment. The exhibition of photos by Bruce Weber is one of the events planned this year to mark the 40-year anniversary of the agnès b. brand which began in Paris in 1976.
www.bruceweber.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.”

Tim Barber, Blues
May 15 - July 5, 2015
agnès b. is pleased to present Blues, an exhibition by Tim Barber opening May 15 at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in SoHo. An 84-page catalog will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, available for purchase at the opening.
Tim Barber (b. Feb. 5, 1979) grew up in Amherst Massachusetts, lived for a few years in the mountains of Northern Vermont, studied photography in Vancouver B.C. and now lives in New York City. A photographer, curator and designer, Barber worked as the photo editor for Vice magazine (2003-2005) and founded the online gallery and image archive tinyvices.com (2005), which was released as a free App (2010) and eventually evolved into Time & Space (www.time-and-space.tv) (2013), a curated community platform for artists. Barber co-curated the inaugural New York Photo Festival (2008) along with Martin Parr (Magnum), Kathy Ryan (New York Times Magazine), and Leslie Martin (The Aperture Foundation). He also curated and edited a series of five monographs published by the Aperture Foundation (2008) and launched the independent publishing house TV Books (2008-2010). Barber is represented by Yuka Tsuruno Gallery in Tokyo, Company Gallery in New York and commercially by Supervision.
“One of my earliest art-related memories is from elementary school, going to a cemetery and making charcoal rubbings of grave stones on flimsy newsprint. I remember thinking about it later on making contact prints in the darkroom in high-school, realizing it was a related process, making the linear connection between photography and archaic printmaking. I’ve always liked thinking about photos that way, that they are like very detailed rubbings of three dimensional reality, translations of impressions. It was this train of thought that brought me back to working with traditional cyanotypes for this new body of work. I was interested in what would happen in the intersection between the digital source images, taken with an iPhone camera, and this archaic blue-print process. I see these prints as re-translated impressions, charcoal rubbings of their originals.” - Tim Barber
www.timbarber.us

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.

Artbook Bookshop
December 9 - March 21, 2015
ARTBOOK and agnès b. are pleased to announce the second ARTBOOK Holiday Bookshop, featuring a carefully edited selection of more than 150 new and classic books on art, photography, music, design, architecture and popular culture by the world's most influential museum and independent publishers. A specially designed tote bag will be offered with every purchase of $60 or more while supplies last.
Founded in 2003 by the New York-based art book distributor and publisher, D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, ARTBOOK partners with museums, cultural institutions and specialty retailers to create vibrant curated book selections for pop-up and permanent art bookstores across America. In addition to the internationally renowned permanent bookstore at MoMA PS1, ARTBOOK curates and oversees the extraordinary book section at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. ARTBOOK also runs annual pop-up bookstores at Art Basel Miami Beach, Design Miami, the New York Art Book Fair, Paris Photo Los Angeles and Frieze New York, among many other fairs and conferences.
agnès b. opened the Galerie Boutique at 50 Howard Street in SoHo in April 2011, the first agnès b. location to include a dedicated art space within a retail environment. Exhibitions at this location have included group and solo shows with a focus on photography, sculpture, painting and video. agnès b. currently operates galleries in Paris, New York, and Hong Kong.
www.artbook.com

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.

Olivia Bee, Kids In Love
June 21 - July 26, 2014
agnès b. is pleased to present Kids in Love, the first New York solo exhibition by photographer Olivia Bee, at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in SoHo, New York. The exhibition comprises 28 color and black-and-white photographs that Bee has taken of friends and people she loves and adores, captured through the artist’s intimate and personal lens.
Once described as “Ryan McGinley on MDMA” by Elle magazine, 20-year-old Bee is unlike other young, contemporary photographers charmed by youth because she does not play the role of voyeur into the lives of her subjects. “There’s so much trust in these photographs,” Bee says of her photos, “everyone sees eye to eye and is on the same level.”
Photography fell into Olivia Bee’s life at the age of 11 when she began to share her first works on the photo-sharing site Flickr, and by age 13, Bee had become a photographer. In the few years since, Bee has photographed for companies such as Converse, Levi’s and Hermès. Her work has been featured in many publications including The New York Times, Vice, Numero, and Harper’s Bazaar Germany.
In 2013 she gave her second TEDx talk in Athens, Greece; her first was in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2012. But whether she’s snapping a glossy ad campaign for Roger Vivier shoes or directing a film of her best friends, her work never fails to beautifully capture both the playful and dramatic side of being a young woman.
A teary-eyed self-portrait, friends skateboarding, a captured underwater kiss; these are the dreamy episodes of a life that Bee lives and simultaneously captures in Kids in Love. With a penchant for grabbing her subjects in scenes of nature, her digital and film photographs often focus on tiny, ordinary moments of the teenager's daily life which she treats with respect and romanticism.
What Bee tries to encapsulate in her photos is the magic of living on a teetering line between being a child and being an adult. “These pictures embody youth and freedom and love all in one place,” says Bee. “They’re fleeting moments of beauty in times like high school and early adulthood that can be very confusing.”
www.oliviabee.com

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.

Richard Bellia, Grunge
April 11 - May 4, 2014
agnès b. is pleased to present GRUNGE by photographer Richard Bellia at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique at 50 Howard Street, SoHo, New York. Composed of 25 black and white hand-made prints, GRUNGE consists of photographs of bands and musicians taken by Bellia from 1988 – 2013. Subjects include Nirvana, Henry Rollins, Dinosaur Jr., Big Black, and cult American singer Daniel Johnston. Shot with Carl Zeiss lenses, Bellia uses Hasselblad and Contax RTS 2 cameras. The hand made prints are from original negatives printed on Ilford Multigrade paper.
Born in France in 1962, Richard Bellia has photographed the world of music since 1980. He only works with silver-based photography and the majority of his photos are black and white. In addition to practical reasons, Bellia chooses to work in black and white as a quest for perfection. "I turned to photography at the age of 18. There was a camera lying around at a friend’s party, I took it, I took photo after photo and when my friends saw the result, they all said, ‘Your photos are really great!,’ and I told myself that was what I should do." In October 1980, during a Cure concert, Bellia decided to become a rock photographer. In 1985, Bellia settled in London and quickly began to work for the famous Melody Maker magazine. This new contribution sparked an interest from the French press and Bellia became a regular correspondent specializing in the British music scene.
www.richardbellia.com

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.

Artbook, Holiday Bookshop
November 23, 2013 - January 19, 2014
ARTBOOK and agnès b. are pleased to announce the ARTBOOK Holiday Bookshop, featuring a carefully edited selection of more than 250 new and classic books on art, photography, music, design, architecture and popular culture by the world's most influential museum and independent publishers. Join us for the opening reception, featuring music by Alex Simon, Saturday, November 23, from 6-8PM.
Founded in 2003 by the New York-based art book distributor and publisher, D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, ARTBOOK partners with museums, cultural institutions and specialty retailers to create vibrant curated book selections for pop-up and permanent art bookstores across America. In addition to the internationally renowned permanent bookstore at MoMA PS1, ARTBOOK curates and oversees the extraordinary book section at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. ARTBOOK also runs annual pop-up bookstores at Art Basel Miami Beach, Design Miami, the New York Art Book Fair, Paris Photo Los Angeles and Frieze New York, among many other fairs and conferences.
agnès b. opened the Galerie Boutique at 50 Howard Street in SoHo in April 2011, the first agnès b. location to include a dedicated art space within a retail environment. Exhibitions at this location have included group and solo shows with a focus on photography, sculpture, painting and video. agnès b. currently operates galleries in Paris, New York, and Hong Kong.
Featured titles in the ARTBOOK Holiday Bookshop include MoMA's major retrospective catalogue on German artist Isa Genzken (on view November 23-March 10); D.A.P. Publishing's extraordinary new monograph on Belgian Surrealist Marcel Broodthaers, edited by the artist's daughter, Marie-Puck Broodthaers; Damiani's must-have survey of the innovative 80s club queen, stylist and designer Maripol, Little Red Riding Hood; Woman/Object, Walther Koenig's fanzine-style, newsprint-and-cloth collection of works by the British collage artist Linder; and an assortment of unusually provocative experimental literary works by Wakefield Press.
New and notable photography books include Richard Corman’s Madonna NYC 83, capturing the superstar on the cusp of global stardom the year everything changed; Dennis Hopper: On The Road, presenting the American icon's seductive black-and-white photography of everything from biker bars to New York art openings, 1961-1967; Aperture's gritty, no-holds-barred Sketch of Paris by Swedish photographer JH Engstrom; a beach-friendly, mini edition of Martin Parr: Life’s a Beach, documenting sunbathers, rambunctious swimmers caught mid-plunge and the eternal sandy picnic; and the last remaining copies of the late Dash Snow's mesmerizing Polaroid collection, I Love You Stupid!, first edition.
The ARTBOOK Holiday Bookshop will stock surprising new releases weekly, alongside a series of artist and photographer book signings, to be announced.
www.artbook.com

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.

Apology, Flowers & Candy
August 1 - September 7, 2013
agnès b. is pleased to present Apology: Flowers & Candy, a group exhibition of photographs, paintings, drawings, and poems curated by Jesse Pearson, the founder and editor of Apology—a new quarterly magazine of literature and culture.
Pearson, previously an editor at index magazine and the eight-year editor-in-chief of Vice magazine, founded Apology in the winter of 2013 to, as he has written, offer an “apologia against what I see as the problematic state of magazines today.” The magazine has been met with praise from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Fast Co. Taking the idea of apology as its launching pad, the exhibition Flowers & Candy offers varied takes on these two classic gifts of remorse. In work that ranges from beautiful and delicate to coarse and funny, the seemingly banal subjects of flowers and candy will be presented in many guises.
Participating artists include regular collaborators of Pearson and Apology such as Roe Ethridge, Terry Richardson, Tim Barber, Tara Sinn, and Richard Kern. Also appearing will be newer voices such as Sandy Kim, Daniel Arnold, Jerry Hsu, Sammy Harkham, paintings by Jim Krewson and Duncan Hannah, and more.
Jesse Pearson is a writer, editor, and curator. He was the editor-in-chief of Vice magazine from 2002 until 2010, when he resigned. Before that, he received unemployment benefits from the State of New York. Before both of those things, he was an editor at index magazine. Pearson co-edited the 2004 group art book entitled Catholic. It was about cats. He currently has two cats named Pickles and Schweppes. He conceived, produced, and directed the internet television series Soft Focus and Shot by Kern. In February of 2013, Pearson founded the quarterly magazine Apology, which he edits and art directs. He is currently at work on his first nonfiction book.
www.apologymagazine.com

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

Mara Haseltine, La Boheme: Portrait of our Oceans in Peril
March 9 - April 28, 2013
agnès b. is pleased to announce the opening of La Bohème: A Portrait of Our Oceans in Peril, an exhibition by New York-based artist Mara G. Haseltine. Plankton plays a crucial role in regulating our planet's atmosphere. These microscopic creatures create half of the world’s oxygen. Ms. Haseltine took the inspiration for her sculptures from the samples of plankton she had collected while she was aboard the schooner Tara Oceans between February and March 2011 off the coast of Chile.
Tara Oceans completed a 3-year tour of the globe collecting plankton last March. The mission was to take a snapshot of the state or health of the world's oceans by looking at the way in which planktonic ecosystems world-wide are being affected by atmospheric climate change.
The contents of these samples revealed an alarming truth; not only did the samples contain the delicate otherworldly forms of plankton but also shreds of sunlight-degraded plastic. This discovery inspired a series of sculptures that resemble surreal beings from an alternate universe, but are in fact depictions of oceanic plankton entwined with plastic. The conclusion is a new awareness--that our fate is intimately linked with that of our oceans.
Ms. Haseltine’s sculptures often have remnants of their manufactured past and at the same time have integrated the hand blown uranium-infused glass which represents the plankton that glows under ultraviolet light that clings to them. To create the series of sculptures on display at agnès b. Galerie Boutique, the artist also collected bits of plastic debris from outside her studio in Brooklyn, which is located on the edge of the East River in New York next to the Brooklyn Bridge. Based on the incredible array of colors and types of plastic refuse she found, she created a series of five sculptures depicting microscopic pieces of sunlight-degraded plastic with plankton clinging to them.
Mara G. Haseltine is an internationally renowned artist best known for her outsized sculptural renditions of microscopic life forms. She was an early pioneer in the translation of bioinformatics into three-dimensional form. She is also an ardent environmentalist and co-founder of The Green Salon, an international think-tank devoted to environmental solutions. Her work has been published in The Times, Le Metro, The Guardian, and Architectural Record.
www.calamara.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

Musique Plastique, Group Show
June 14 - August 25, 2012
There are few creative fields that have such a richly rewarding friendship as the visual arts and music. Why indeed should we choose between Elvis and Duchamp, Botticelli or Sonic Youth, Kraftwerk or Warhol, Matthew Barney or Debussy? Some artists never decide, or refuse to make this decision, and instead develop a sort of double practice, exploring the fields of both visual art and music.
It's from the close attention to the work and specific practices of these artists that the project Musique plastique was born in January 2011 at the Galerie du Jour agnès b. in Paris. Musique plastique is a group exhibition, a series of concerts/performances/workshops/ conferences, as well as a catalogue and a compilation. Through this global and multidisciplinary approach, Musique plastique proposes to understand the projects of these artist-musicians (or musician-artists) from a double point of view – visual and musical. This way we can better see their impact, better measure their diversity and individuality, and better understand what separates them from other contemporary art and music scenes.
The basic idea behind Musique plastique was to invite around 20 of these visual-musical artists to show the work that typifies this double practice. In paintings, productions, installations or displays their duality is revealed, conceived as so many singular environments, at once audio, visual or even tactile. This "constraint" which requires the artists to think visually as well as musically, comes from a need to analyze more deeply the connections and interactions between the two creative disciplines. Following an investigative approach, the exhibition tries to release the forms, problems and methods common to these artists, while highlighting their individual works.
What inspires a painter to pick up a guitar? By the same token, what makes a musician want to make a video? And, most importantly, what relationships can be established between visual work or work done in sound? Have these artists established connections or hierarchies in their different practices? How does creating a multiform work influence the form and the content of the creation? As many questions as Musique Plastique offers subtle and in-depth answers.
The exhibition encourages the use of a wide variety of media, from drawing to video, photography to painting and multimedia installations. On the music side, the artists explore numerous styles, commonly with a pop sensibility and a DIY approach but differing otherwise: electro-rock, no wave, post punk, minimal electro, synth pop, folk, experimental rock, angry disco punk and many other sounds, difficult to categorize even given the vast segmentation of musical styles today.

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).

Julien Langerdoff, Goddess Fuzz Fantasy
February 11 - April 1, 2012
agnès b. is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by French artist, Julien Langendorff, at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in Soho. This is the artist’s first solo show in New York.
His work combines collage, pen and ink drawings and paper cut-outs of 1970’s erotic imagery and often conjures up dark, dream-like visions influenced by gothic and hippie cultures, Black Sabbath, spiritism and diary-art. Langendorff’s work is both minimal and psychedelic with a free, stream of conscious sensibility. Included in the show are three collaborative pieces with artist and band-mate, Jason Glasser. The title of the series ‘Goddess Fuzz Fantasy’ originated from a line of one of Langendorff’s poems.
Julien Langendorff was born in Paris, France, in 1982. He studied at the École Duperré Paris where he began experimenting in various mediums including metal etchings and film, while writing and playing music. He has exhibited in galleries in Paris, New York, Tokyo and Berlin and first met agnès b. at one of his exhibitions in 2009. He also plays music in Pillars of Fire, a doom-psychedelic band formed with artist Jason Glasser and singer Matteah Balm, and plays and records solo under the name, Skate Witches. Julien Langendorff lives and works in Paris, France.
www.julienlangendorff.com

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

Jonas Mekas, This Side of Paradise
September 24 - November 20, 2011
agnès b. is proud to present This Side of Paradise, a photography exhibition from internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker, Jonas Mekas at the recently opened agnès b. Galerie Boutique in Soho, New York. This exhibition marks the first time these rare and deeply personal images of the Kennedy and Radziwill families from the early 1970's are on view in NYC in their entirety. The photo prints are taken directly from the original 16mm film of Mekas' celebrated film 'This Side of Paradise: Fragments of an Unfinished Biography' which he completed in 1999.
Jonas Mekas talks about the project, from a page in his diaries: "Unpredictably, as most of my life's key events have been, for a period of several years in the late sixties and early seventies, I had the fortune to spend some time, mostly during the summers, with Jackie Kennedy's and her sister Lee Radziwill's families. Cinema was an integral, inseparable, as a matter of fact, a key part of our friendship. The time was still very close to the untimely, tragic death of John F. Kennedy. Jackie wanted to give something to her children to do, to help to ease the transition of life without a father. One of her thoughts was that a movie camera would be fun for children. Peter Beard, who was at that time tutoring John Jr. and Caroline in art history, suggested to Jackie that I was the man to introduce the children to cinema. Jackie said yes. And that's how it all began. I bought them a very easily operable 16mm movie camera, and even wrote a "mini-textbook" suggesting some simple movie exercises.
The images in the exposition, with a few exceptions, they all come from the summers Caroline and John Jr. spent in Montauk, with their cousins Anthony and Tina Radziwill, in an old house Lee rented from Andy Warhol, for a few summers. Andy himself spent many of his weekends there, in one of the cottages, as did Peter Beard, whom children had adopted almost like their older brother or a father they missed. These were summers of happiness, joy and continuous celebrations of life and friendships. These were days of Little Fragments of Paradise." - Jonas Mekas
Originally exhibited at agnès b.'s Galerie du Jour in Paris in 1999, This Side of Paradise was a great critical and popular success and the photo exhibition marked the beginning of a long-standing collaboration and friendship between agnès b., Galerie du Jour and Jonas Mekas and resulted in a number of exhibitions, publications and art projects. To coincide with the New York show, there will be a special film screening of "This Side of Paradise: Fragments of an Unfinished Biography" at Anthology Film Archives at 7:30 PM on October 13, 2011.
www.jonasmekas.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.

My New York Friends, Group Show
March 31 - July 9, 2011
agnès b., is pleased to announce the opening of a spacious new “gallery boutique” in Soho that will encapsulate the eclectic, visionary aesthetic of the brand’s founder and designer, Agnès Troublé. Located at 50 Howard Street, the new store will be the first in the company’s history to include a dedicated contemporary art gallery space that Agnès describes as a “gallery wall.”
The inaugural exhibition, My New York Friends, includes works by BAST, Jared Buckhiester, Dan Colen, Craig Costello, David Ellis, Douglas Gordon, Young Kim, Harmony Korine, Ryan McGinley, Ryan McGinness, Jonas Mekas, Jose Parla, Rostarr, and more.
Reminiscent of the airy agnès b. Paris headquarters, the light-filled store is located on a cobblestoned street in a beautifully restored historic landmark building at 50 Howard St. (between Mercer and Broadway). Originally built in 1863, the building once housed a soldier’s hospital and features 12-foot ceilings, original cast iron columns, floor to ceiling windows, exposed brick walls and a limestone façade.
Agnès’ design concept for her new flagship blends the historic, architectural details with a bright, fresh, contemporary aesthetic. Polished pale grey concrete floors, clean white walls and modern fixtures are mixed with antique, mid-century and industrial vintage furniture to create a stylish merging of old and new.
Customers will be able to experience the full spectrum of the agnès b. world at the new Howard Street store. The art periodical, Point d’Ironie, is guest-curated each issue and will be available alongside a carefully selected offering of art and culture books. Underground art films will occasionally be screened and Agnès’ striking collection of original film noir posters will be on display.