Art Capital: is back at the Grand Palais

Art Capital is back at the Grand Palais from February 19 to 22, 2025.

Art Capital occupies a special place: since 2006, it has brought together four historic associative salons – salons of French Artists (1881), Independent Artists / Art Freedom (1884), Drawing Water Painting (1951) and Comparisons (1954).

Artists and the public are finally reuniting after five years of relocation to the other side of the Seine, at the temporary Grand Palais.

Art Freedom is an observatory of diversity for greater visibility of overseas artists. Art Freedom is more than an exhibition, it is the diversity of arts, cultures, practices and genres.

For this new edition of Art Capital, the head of Art Freedom, the president of the association Couleur Pays, Mélissa Biron, invited a dozen artists, including four Guadeloupean artists, « I fell in love with their works, » explains the president, Mélissa Biron.

Luidji Deloumeaux (Guadeloupe), Guylaine Conquet (Guadeloupe), Aswan Diama (Africa), Pari Ravan (Germany), Marcellus Hoedie (Netherlands), Laurence Bourdon (France), Kyoko Sakazaki (Japan), Lahens Iris Geneviève (Haiti), VP Vasuhan (Sri Lanka), Sarah Ansaldi (Italy), Kyoko Higa (Japan), Reynald Germain (Haiti), Claudia Euzet Hoyau (Guyana), Ali Sabouki (Iran) and James Jchadima (UNITED STATES), have exhibited their works in this great French-style salon of Parisian contemporary art creation, Art Capital, which brings together more than two thousand international artists each year.

3,000 artists from all over the world, with particular attention paid to the richness of contemporary African art thanks to the Open Artfrica and Art Freedom programs.

This is the spirit of art in complete freedom. « Art Freedom allows meetings, exchanges and it brings dynamism through this diversity. We must encourage the work of artists to trace the heritage and not forget our identity and know where we come from », says Mélissa Biron.

For this return to the Grand Palais, Mornalien Luidgi Deloumeaux had decided to create an imposing canvas, also praising the assets and riches of the Guadeloupe archipelago.

« There is the symbol of the woman who represents the Caribbean, the bull from our country which represents strength and I also wanted to pay tribute to the heron that we have at home and which represents the protector of all this strength and this Caribbean », he describes enthusiastically, wanting to convey a clear message to those who discover it.

This year, the event is distinguished by several new features:

– Artificial Intelligence in the spotlight: Innovative artists explore the boundaries between art and technology, offering resolutely modern works.
– Increased cultural diversity: Delegations from Korea, Japan, China, Latin America and many other countries enrich the exhibition.
– More than 3,000 artists exhibited: A record for this event that confirms its status as an international springboard.

Since its creation, Art Capital has established itself as an unmissable event in the art world. Designed by artists and for artists, it offers a unique platform to exhibit, exchange and celebrate cultural diversity.

When it opened, more than 9,000 people rushed to discover the works and meet artists of all ages and backgrounds without barriers.

Aswan Diama, painter and fashion designer

Aswan Diama is a painter and fashion designer, she has cultivated this passion and talent since childhood.

Originally from Mali, she has lived in France since childhood, where she adopted and was inspired by two Afro-Western artistic cultures. Her works resonate with an intensity and originality that catch the eye and captivate the mind.

From 2021, she decided to exhibit her works in art galleries in France and internationally, from where she received honorary titles and awards.

In 2024, she received the Prix du Phœnix in Venice, and the award following an exhibition at 25Hours in Paris, hence the opportunity to participate in Art Capital by exhibiting at Art Freedom.

Marcellus Hoedie, attracted by modern and traditional art, he reflects and awakens the imagination

Marcellus Hoedie, his real name Marcel Hoedemaker, was born in Amsterdam, and for several years he has been living in France in Vence, a picturesque town in the heart of the suburbs of Nice.

Inspired by nature, tranquility and the richness of the artistic history of the region help him to create expressive works in relation to modernity and tradition. His art invites reflection and imaginative awakening.

He is recognized for his abstract and figurative style that contains warm and intense colors, with dynamism, the play of light and shadow, a freestyle impressionist.

Marcel Hoedemaker has exhibited internationally, both individually and collectively, in Europe and Asia: Munich, Amsterdam, Beijing, Istanbul, Bucharest, Tallinn, Vence, Barcelona, ​​Berlin, Monte Carlo, Mannheim, Valbonne, Vallauris, Arnhem, Monaco, and during this period at the Art Capital fair at Art Freedom.

The artist has also won three international awards:
– 1st prize at the Antibes International Competition in St. Pierre in 2011;
– 1st prize at the Miramar Croisette International Competition in Cannes;
– 1st prize in the international environmental competition in Nice.

Pari Ravan, from doctor and pilot to painter and sculptor

Pari Ravan, born in Abadan, Iran, is an Iranian-German painter and sculptor living in France. At the age of 14, she won the first Iranian art prize for young people.

She was a student of Professor Sadegpoor at the Higher University of Fine Arts in Tehran and at the age of 17, she moved to Germany.

Her academic career was very rich and diverse, the art and craft school in Mainz in parallel with her medical studies, then participated in exhibitions in Cologne as well as in Berlin where she was a student of Madame Gabriel, the creator of horses, around 1970-1971. From 1976 to 1979, she was a student of Baruch Elron, the Israeli painter of fantastical surrealism.

For 27 years, Pari Ravan has devoted herself entirely to her passion as a painter and sculptor.
She has received 22 medals from countries such as Japan, China, Iran, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and the United States. Among them, in 2007, the Nice International Eagle Award, then the Cannes Gold Medal for Painting in 2008, as well as the Kobe Artistic Excellence Award in Japan.
She has participated in more than 300 exhibitions, solo or group in the United States, France, China, Japan, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, Austria, etc.

Some of her works have been acquired by the city of Overath, the city of Cologne, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Sankt Augustin, near Bonn, the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation in Berlin, the Solingen Museum and the Cannes City Hall in France.

Pari Ravan is referenced in the International Dictionary of Artists (USA), International Contemporary Master of Art (USA), Dizionario Enciclopedico Internazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Italy), as well as in Lexikon der Phantastischen Kuenstle (Austria).

At first glance, we understand the message contained in PARI RAVAN’s paintings, through the perspective of psychoanalysis and psychology, thanks to the university studies of psychiatry carried out in Germany.

Her paintings tell stories, and the titles chosen with great care are clues to enter the story. But when we look at the image, understanding becomes less obvious, because the stories remain open. It is up to the observer to imagine the end. This makes us understand that: « we give too much importance to ourselves compared to the immense universe in which we live. »

©2025 – IMPACT EUROPEAN

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