I’m relatively (4 weeks) new to Paris. No really knowing where to start for a Saturday gallery walk, I started with 6 galleries that I found on Paris Art and was drawn into two more during the walk. One unscheduled gallery caught my attention with bursts of color flying out the windows and the other with just black and white. This link will take you to preset google maps with all the galleries I mention here, should anyone else want to take this walk for themselves. I can even highly recommend the steak frites at Le Diplomate, on the corner of Rue de Turenne and Rue Saint-Claude.

Three of the galleries on my map had shows not interesting enough (to me) to write about – Galerie Chantal Crousel, Xippas Galerie and Galerie Magda Danysz. All three were physically great spaces that could have shown interesting works, but didn’t.

La B*A*N*K. The most provocative. Of the 7 galleries I visited, this is my favorite. Definitely a place I will come back to visit again and again. The show I caught was called FORWARD2: Post Graffiti Exposition. And among my faves were pieces by Greg Vezon, Prunelle, Supakitch, and Guillame Adbi.

Almine Rech. Neat space. In my book, it’s hard to go wrong with cement, wood and lights. The changing shadows on the ceiling, walls and floor were as much a part of the work as the more tangible cement and wood elements. But, to be honest, I really only spent about 5 minutes in the gallery. It was small, but worth the stop in.

Galerie Blue Square. This was the gallery I could not walk past without getting drawn in by the brilliant colors in the street facing windows. The show is called Portraits Evanescents, and the works are by the Russian artist Alexei Vassiliev. The show runs through July 26th. Is is really worth checking out. The gallery specializes in contemporary Russian art and the owner/curator, Dianne Beal, is very friendly and helpful.

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Another gallery I loved and will definitely go back to again and again. The two shows I especially liked were Malpais, works by Jules Balincourt, and Hyperrealism, works by Jeon Joonho. Some of the works by Balincourt have a pseudo digital-in-paint feeling which catches your attention with color and form and keeps it while you are trying to figure out the meaning of the text. Text like COEXIST, MMIISSSSEEDDMMEEDDIIAATTIIOON and SHOLE!WHEREISYOURFLAGNOW?ASS.

Joohno’s works are exhibited below ground, down a spiral staircase. This video is from “Space 1: Panic Disoderius”. As for “Space 2: Untitled”, it freaked me out. Go see it.

Galerie Verdier. And next, the second gallery that caught me while I was walking past. All sharp black and white works of Akiza. The show is called Garden Party and runs through July 19th.

And finally, a gallery walk would not be complete without a little street art. The below was seen on steps on Rue Charlot and was dutifully submitted to Wooster Collective.