In Paris, 5 free exhibitions to see in galleries this fall

Follow us in the Marais! The numerous galleries installed in this lively district of the capital are home to great discoveries this season. We will notably come across actors of modern art, like the American Charles Pollock, Jackson’s brother, exposed by the gallery Etc.but also the cosmic and solar painting of the German Evi Kellerin the spotlight at Jeanne Bucher Jaegeralongside a display dedicated to the surrealist Max Ernst.

While strolling Saint-Germain-des-Présdon’t miss the tribute to Sonia Delaunay which unfolds into two galleries. There will always be time to cross the Seine again to discover, just opposite Beaubourg, the Micki Meng gallerynamed after its curator, who has just opened her very first space in Europe, after conquering the United States.

1. Charles, the other Pollock at the Etc gallery.

The Americans are in Paris! While the National Picasso Museum in Paris presents, from October 15, a major exhibition devoted to Jackson Pollock, the Etc. gallery. retrace the different Parisian periods of another Pollock: his brother. Charles Pollock (1902–1988), who arrived in the capital in 1971 with his wife and daughter, was only expected to stay for a year. He will almost never leave! Notably the last 17 years of his life, where he painted, installed in a workshop at the back of a courtyard at 124 rue du Cherche-Midi, in 6^e borough. His almost musical compositionsdrawn in acrylic or pastel, sketch urban happiness.

2. Evi Keller, cosmic visual artist at Jeanne Bucher Jaeger

We float in its stellar blues, we consume ourselves among burning stars… The light is there matter intrinsic to the works of Evi Keller. Of German origin, born in 1968 and based in Paris since 1994, this alchemist artist explores the way light, or how it works by transforming matter. Enough to earn her the first Carta Bianca prize in 2023 and to be counted, the same year, among the winners of the 100 Women of Culture prize. With a rare sensitivity and great intensity, the visual artist captivates those who discover her, as well as others who rediscover her. “The intense feeling experienced when I approach a work by Evi Keller is, first of all, that of an intensity of sight, confirms Olivier Kaeppelin, eminent art critic who signs the texts of this third exhibition at the Jeanne Bucher gallery Jaeger, entitled “Origins”. Strangely, I don’t see in front of me but ‘inside me’,” adds the former director of the Maeght foundation. This glow in the heart of winter is to be contemplated until mid-January.

3. Marie Cecile Thijs, baroque photographer at Galerie XII

We focus on the series of portraits, and still lifes, of Marie Cecile Thijs (born in 1964), who got into photography around fifteen years ago after a previous life as a lawyer. It’s in the studio, with a Hasselbladby playing with the codes of the past while blurring the present, she constructs her compositions. The image flirts with chiaroscuro, 17th century painting^e century, and borders on surrealism. Everything becomes baroque when the photographer adds collars on his modelsthat she makes birds grow in Delft vases, or levitates a rhubarb leaf. A deliciously absurd return to the future.

4. New arrival! The Micki Meng gallery opens opposite the Center Pompidou

This is the story of a small experimental showcase that became a large, influential gallery. Since 2018, where she began showcasing and selling works by leading local and international contemporary artists, the curator Micki Meng has continued to see his project grow! From two spaces to San Franciscothen another to Manhattanhere is his gallery installed since September 2024 facing Beaubourg. Over 120 m²the exhibition curator defends artists whom she places in museums, foundations or with collectors who have a sense of sharing. First meeting with the Congolese artist Jean Katambayi Mukendi (born in 1974) then with the American painter Lauren Satlowski (born in 1984).

5. Sonia Delaunay in a double exposure

A single gallery would not have been enough to demonstrate the marvelous palette of Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979). Painter, designer, engraver, graphic designer, she was interested, during her 70 years of careerin design and fashion, in tapestry and mosaic. To pay tribute to this avant-garde designer, and even more to bring her out of the shadow of her husband Robert Delaunay, the Zlotowski gallery and the Roger-Viollet gallery have joined forces to present “Sonia Delaunay, la Simultanée”. At the same time therefore, from one number to another on rue de Seine (Paris, 6^e), the Zlotowski gallery unveils 40 works (including several works related to fashion) while Roger-Viollet tells us about the artist in a selection of cliches moving.