Press Release

Guy Yanai paints interiors, with or without people, windows overlooking gardens, flowers in vases, portraits of young women going about their daily business... In short, he paints ‘The Things of Life’. It is no coincidence that he gave this title to one of his past exhibitions. Throughout his work, there is an echo of what the French New Wave brought to cinema, an everyday yet unexpected freshness and naturalness, captured on the spot and cleverly transposed into the world of painting through a subtle reduction of forms to colourful, rhythmic planes. The clarity of his compositions and the delicate harmonic balance of the planes create an atmosphere of strangeness and suspense, like a fleeting moment of everyday life floating in the collective memory.‘You Must Change Your Life’, the title chosen by Guy Yanai for this exhibition, which has been specially designed for the spaces of the Avenue Matignon gallery, is taken from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, whose elegiac tone inspired the painter.

Guy Yanai was born in 1977 in Haifa, Israel. He lives and works between Tel Aviv and Marseille. His work has been exhibited in numerous institutions, including the Ju Ming Museum, Taipei (2025); MORE Museum, Gorssel (2024); the Nassima/Landau Foundation, Tel Aviv (2024); Kunsthal, Rotterdam (2022); Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa (2015); Velan Centre for Contemporary Art, Turin (2013); Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar. Guy Yanai’s paintings feature in numerous public and private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia, including those of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Xiao Museum (Rhizao), the Hort Mann Foundation (New York), the José & Mary Mugrabi Collection (New York), M Art Centre (Shanghai), UT Southwestern Medical Centre (Dallas), Museum Voorlinden (Wassenaar), the Drake Collection (Wassenaar), the Anita Zabludowicz Collection (London), Pon Holdings Collection (Amsterdam), the Bronfman Collection, the Arison Family Collection, and the Creutz & Partners Luxembourg Collection.

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About the Artist

Guy Yanai attended Parsons School of Design, New York, NY; The New York Studio School, New York, NY; Pont-Aven School of Art, Pont-Aven, France and received a BFA from Hampshire College, Amherst, MA.

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About the Gallery
Galerie Lelong is located in Paris and New York. It was founded by Jacques Dupin, Daniel Lelong and Jean Frémon.

The Paris gallery has been exhibiting recent works from artists of international standing since 1981. The 1980s were notable for artists who went on to become household names, including Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Eduardo Chillida, Paul Rebeyrolle, Pierre Alechinsky, but also for the next generation of artists: Konrad Klapheck, Jan Dibbets, Donald Judd, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Jannis Kounellis, Arnulf Rainer, Nicola De Maria and Jan Voss.

In the 1990s, the gallery hosted artists who represented major movements in contemporary art: Sean Scully, Günther Förg, Andy Goldsworthy, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Antonio Saura. The gallery also increased international recognition of the work of Ana Mendieta.

Since the turn of the century, Galerie Lelong has accentuated the geographical and expressive diversity of its artists: from sculpture and objects by Jaume Plensa, David Nash, Wolfgang Laib, Kiki Smith, Rebecca Horn, Barry Flanagan to installations by Barthélémy Toguo and Lin Tianmiao, without forgetting painting, namely David Hockney, Robert Motherwell, Kate Shepherd, Nalini Malani, Nancy Spero, Juan Uslé, Leon KossoffLeon Kossoff.

Galerie Lelong has a large publishing department which produces and distributes engravings, lithographs, digital prints and multiple objects, and collates these works in catalogues raisonnés.

It produces monumental sculptures to order for public spaces and private clients.

The gallery is present at the leading international contemporary art fairs (Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Fiac Paris, Frieze London, Frieze New York, Arco Madrid, Art Brussels, Expo Chicago...).

The directors of the gallery are Jean Frémon, Daniel Lelong and Patrice Cotensin in Paris and Mary Sabbatino in New York.
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Address
38 avenue Matignon
Paris
France
Opening Hours
Tues - Sat, 11am - 7pm
(1)
Paris 38 avenue Matignon
Galerie Lelong
38 avenue Matignon, Paris, France

Opening hours
Tues - Sat, 11am - 7pm
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