From February 19 to 22, 2025, the newly restored Grand Palais hosted Art Capital, a four-discipline art fair: the Independent Artists Fair, the French Artists Fair, Comparisons, and the Drawing and Painting Fair.
Each year, it showcases five artistic disciplines: painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, and printmaking.
A must-see for contemporary art lovers, gallery owners, collectors, professionals, and amateurs alike.
More than 2,000 French and international artists, both established and emerging talents, exhibited their works.
Young Chinese artists Ray Song and Fang Li presented multicolored fish symbolizing abundance, happy omens, and the aspiration for a new life—themes inherent in traditional Chinese culture.
A bronze portrait and a waxed terracotta piece, titled « Earring, » were notable, by Valem, an engineer fascinated by modeling and working with « superimposed balls. »
Gilles Laburthe, an art director in Parisian advertising agencies, visual artist, and creator of Studio Ocre (a reference to the Domaine de l’Ocrerie, his guesthouse in Puisaye), presented a pyramid-shaped display of white plates bearing his image, captioned « To be or not to be comfortable in one’s plate. »
Larissa Noury, a renowned colorist born in Belarus, twirled in front of her tactile board, adorned with sumptuous blue veils.
Her activities are diverse: architect, researcher, and professor, she teaches color and creates color studies for cities. She has also dabbled in fashion design, haute couture, and photography.
The « Nile Crocodile » by animal sculptor Matthieu Floranc was impressively lifelike.
A magnificent dark green, life-size, it was carved from solid stone with its base in granite from Germany.
In ancient Egypt, the animal was a symbol of rebirth.
Jean-Claude Atzori, painter, was first an engineer before making painting his main activity while also teaching it. Inspired by Mondrian, Poliakoff, Bridget Riley, and Aurélie Nemours, he devotes most of his research to geometric abstraction.
Virgile Bastien received the Grand Prix at the Art Capital 2025 fair.
Let him define his artistic approach:
« A self-taught artist, I create drawings from my imagination with a profusion of fine-point felt-tip pen details measuring only a few tenths of a millimeter (fineliner)… my sources of inspiration are the beauty of life and nature…
I seek to arouse curiosity, wonder, and contemplation through a rich, meticulous, and mysterious universe… to transcribe a poetic atmosphere… My drawings are composed of countless indelible strokes, extremely close together and intertwined to create contrasts and gradations…
I am grateful for the sumptuous legacy left by Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, and Gustave Doré. »
Richard Gautier’s oil paintings are impressively vibrant and precise with their use of light. He is a master of trompe-l’oeil, of « enchanting the eye, » as he likes to say. His paintings illustrate life in all its diversity.
He teaches drawing and painting classes and claims to continue learning with his students.
Alain Fromonot du Gravier paints landscapes and portraits.
He organizes oil painting workshops on stretcher frames in businesses with the concept of « enabling everyone to create a work of art in two days without ever having thought or dared to do so before. »
He owns a studio where he teaches drawing and oil painting.
He defines the art of painting thus: « Through the mastery of light, conveying boldness to connect with others and revealing oneself. »
This year again, Art Capital brought together artists from all walks of life, the talents of tomorrow.
A dive into the fascinating world of contemporary art.
©2025 – IMPACT EUROPEAN
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