This year for the 45th edition of FIAC in Paris, Galerie Nathalie Obadia is returning with an exciting presentation of works. For the occasion, Whitewaller spoke with the gallerist about what she’ll be showing at the fair, and how growing up with collecting parents inspired her to be intellectually alert in the art world.
WHITEWALLER: You’re returning to FIAC this year with some stirring works. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re presenting?
Courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
NATHALIE OBADIA: The booth at FIAC always reflects the gallery’s program and our artists’ current news. It is a selection of exclusive or exceptional artworks, such as for Martin Barré (who will have a solo show at the MAMCO in Geneva in 2019); Mickalene Thomas (with a solo show at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in 2018); Jérôme Zonder (who will have many important solo shows in 2018 and 2019); Wang Keping; and also works by Laure Prouvost, who will represent France at the Biennale di Venezia in 2019. A booth is a way to link the artist’s aesthetics, showing at the same time the richness and diversity of their creations.
WW: Can you talk about Rina Banerjee’s exhibition “Native Naked . . .,” taking place during FIAC, but also on view at the gallery from September 8 to October 27?
Meuser, Handtasche, 2018 by Meuser.
Courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
NO: Rina Banerjee is always very happy to come back to France, where she has enjoyed increasing success since her first solo show at the gallery in 2007. The exhibition at Musée Guimet in 2011 was essential to demonstrate all the originality of the work of Rina Banerjee, an Indian American artist who finds references in her two cultures. We will present her sixth solo exhibition at Galerie Nathalie Obadia (in Paris and Brussels), which will be an extension of her first survey in America starting at the PAFA in Philadelphia (October 2018) and traveling to four American museums, including the San Jose Museum of Art.
WW: You also have an exhibition of works by Meuser entitled “Trocknen lassen,” on view from September 8 to October 27. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Take my hand in marriage and matrimonial money with offers of dowry and grandoise public weddings, 2018 by Rina Banerjee.
Courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
NO: I discovered Meuser’s work at the Villa Arson in Nice more than 20 years ago. In Germany he is the most important sculptor of his generation. He learned how to liven up and in a way of giving a voice to the industrial materials that symbolize the German industrial era, which forged the country’s image and transformation after 1945. The photographers Hilla and Bernd Becher have also magnified this vision with their factories photographs. The human figure disappears from the artworks and yet remains so present. A show with Meuser and the Bechers would be very interesting.
WW: Your parents were collectors. How did it affect your eye and the way you are collecting today?
NO: With them I have learned we always had to remain intellectually alert. It forges a spirit of curiosity and an open mind. I have watched my parents understand the aesthetic impact of the America of the ’60s, just as at the beginning of the 2000s I had to raise my own interest in non-Occidental artists coming, for instance, from China or India.
