Art & Culture
“Premiers Vertiges” (First Thrills) is a Group Show Curated by Elise Roche at Galerie Ketabi Bourdet in Paris

Showing from now until April 7th, 2023, artists will include Marcella Barceló, Amélie Bigard, Maisie Cousins, Henry Darger, Olivier Gagnère, Elizabeth Garouste, Inès Longevial, Valentin Ranger, Tal Regev, Charles de Vilmorin and Robert Wilson

Do you remember your first vertigo? The ones of your body, your mind and your heart? For most of the artists in this collective and multidisciplinary exhibition, the transition to adulthood, or the feeling of transition more generally, has been an opportunity for questioning, a search for identity and the creation of a new world. This theme, which is present in the generation of emerging artists, can also be found in the production of more emblematic figures such as Henry Darger. Whether as a painter, photographer, designer, video artist or even fashion designer, they have all participated in the game of the young curator in order to give birth to an exhibition where colour and figuration are mixed with plastic creation and dreamlike visions.

Orpheu negro, 2023
Peinture à la tempéra et ciment sur bois entoilé, Tempera and cement painted on canvas on wood panel 
40x50cm
Courtesy of the artist and Ketabi Bourdet 
Amélie Bigard 
Blue Mermaid, 2018
Archival pigment print on Hahnemulhe Pearl paper
Courtesy of the artist and Ketabi Bourdet
Maisie Cousins 
Patchwork, 2023 
Assemblage de 472 impressions sur coton cousues par la grand-mère de l'artiste 
Assembly of 472 prints on cotton sewed by the artist’s grandmother 
193 x 137 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Ketabi Bourdet
Inès Longevial

Curating this brilliant show at Galerie Ketabi Bourdet in Paris is Elise Roche, a curator and contemporary art consultant. Since 2019, she has been the director of projects at Hervé Mikaeloff Agency where she specializes in projects dedicated to emerging creation. She has participated in the curation of various exhibitions such as "L'écume des songes" alongside the selection on contemporary figuration for Art Paris Art Fair, "Miss Dior" a Dior heritage exhibition or even the participation in the curation of the last edition of Noor Festival in Riyadh.

First Love, 2021
Acrylique sur canvas
Acrylic on canvas 
190x170 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Ketabi Bourdet
©Grégory Copitet 
Marcella Barceló

Ketabi Bourdet, (which Charlotte Ketabi-Lebard and Paul Bourdet announced in May 2022 is  the result of the merger of Ketabi Projects and Paul Bourdet Fine Furniture) is the perfect venue for this vision. Ketabi Bourdet gallery is now divided into two poles: Ketabi Bourdet Contemporary; which continues the activities of Ketabi Projects, namely the promotion and representation of contemporary artists and Ketabi Bourdet Design; who defends, in line with Paul Bourdet Fine Furniture, furniture from the 1980s/1990s while developing an activity of promoting contemporary designers. This association takes place in a context where art and design are considered to be increasingly complementary, bringing together the same museums, critics, journalists and collectors. Both passionate about contemporary art and design, Charlotte Ketabi-Lebard and Paul Bourdet merge their respective specialities, their experience and their individual reputation, defining a program of personal and collective exhibitions of artists and designers, which highlights the creation of their time as whole.

Baby Hulk, 2021 
Peinture, Tempera et paillettes sur bois entoilé 
Painting, Tempera and glitter on wood canvas 
19 x 28 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Ketabi Bourdet
Amélie Bigard 
Wasp, 2017
Archival pigment print on Hahnemulhe Pearl paper
Courtesy of the artist and Ketabi Bourdet
Maisie Cousins
Words: Emily Leung & Nikey Cheng
Published on March 16, 2023