Art-o-rama 2024 to Showcase Rising Galleries in Marseille

Spotlight Art-o-rama 2023: Four Artists to Scout Out Annabel Downes

It features a generous portion of galleries that haven’t presented at the fair before and a spotlight on recent art school graduates.

Boutique art fair Art-o-rama will soon return to a former tobacco factory in the south of France for its 18th edition.

The fair will gather 42 contemporary art galleries—half of whom are presenting at the fair for the first time—at Marseille’s La Friche la Belle de Mai art centre from Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September.

The fair’s director, Jérôme Pantalacci, said this year’s fair would feature ‘a mix of very young galleries, like Brigitte Mulholland, who opened her gallery this year in Paris, and some more established, like Dvir and Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois.’

Altogether, Art-o-rama will present 42 contemporary art galleries spanning the breadth of Europe—from Longtermhandstand in Budapest to SISSI club in Marseille—and beyond.

Others are visiting from London (DES BAINS, Public Gallery, Sherbert Green), Chicago (Good Weather, M. Le Blanc, MICKEY) and Vancouver (Afternoon).

Of the 37 gallery booths, five are shared, including one in which sans titre (Paris) and Union Pacific (London) will present works by Caroline Mesquita and Wei Libo.

‘We always have a significant number of very young galleries, because we allow exhibitors to make a curatorial project for a very affordable price,’ Pantalacci said. ‘Each booth is tailored according to the proposal’s needs, which is quite unique and brings a lot of diversity to the fair’s scenography.’

Another 16 galleries will feature in the fair’s edition and design section, while 11 will present works in the fair’s online Immaterial Salon, which offers mostly video and sound-based work.

Art film screenings and conversations will take place at the venue’s ‘petit plateau’. Pantalacci says this year’s programme foregrounds women artists.

‘One discussion will start with book presentations that question their visibility or invisibility both historically, with Anaïd Demir and her book Les Suffragettes de l’art (2024), and from a contemporary perspective with the anthology Some of Us (2024), curated by Jérôme Cotinet-Alphaize and Marianne Derrien.’

‘We will screen two films by Lithuanian artist Emilija Škarnulytė that pay tribute to mytho-archeologist Marija Gimbutas and her research about the matristic society in Europe between 6,500 and 3,500 BC, followed by a discussion between the artist and curators Merilin Talumaa and Justė Kostikovaitė,’ he said.

Art-o-rama also offers a number of awards, including acquisitive prizes. The most watched is the Région Sud Art Prize, which is aimed at artists who have graduated from schools in the south of France in the last five years.

Curator Francesco Tenaglia, a contributing editor at Spike and co-founder of the Sgomento Zurigo exhibition space in Zurich, has selected four nominees: Théo Combaluzier, Noria Kaouadji, Cassandra Naigre, and Marie Perraud.

The winning artist will receive the opportunity to present in the main section of next year’s Art-o-rama following a two-month residency with the Moly-Sabata / Albert Gleizes Foundation. —[O]

Main image: Booth view: In Situ - fabienne leclerc, Romainville, Grand Paris at Art-o-rama 2023. © Margot Montigny.