Five artists from the Soho House collection to see at Paris+ 

This weekend, Paris welcomes a brand new art fair, Paris+ par Art Basel. Replacing FIAC, Paris+, which is supported by Porsche, has drawn art dealers, collectors and leading galleries from across the Atlantic – and the Channel for those who have just packed up after Frieze London. Paris+ is run by Art Basel, which already has a presence in Switzerland, Miami and Hong Kong – and this alone is worth your excitement. Paris+ will launch in the Grand Palais’s temporary site with just over 170 dealers, and remain there until 2023. The organisers promise that around a third of the fair will be dedicated to French contemporary art. To give you an insight into its brightest names, both emerging and established, we have picked five artists who are present at the fair, and whose works you can see at Soho House Paris. 

1. Julie Beaufils, Balice Hertling 

Paris-based Julie Beaufils primarily works with painting. Her graphic structures and bold colours explore the space between abstraction and figuration. The canvases might seem minimal to the viewer at the first glance – yet the works tap into memories and the subtle emotional impact of colour and proportion that often remain unseen. 

2. Matthias Garcia, Sultana

Paris-based Matthias Garcia graduated from the city’s École des Beaux-Arts in 2020, and his paintings have already earnt critical acclaim. Through layering oil and acrylic paint on canvas, he creates saturated complex compositions merging nature and human forms. His work draws from both the natural world and the themes that are fictional, folkloric and relating to human consciousness – each one is a pleasure to unpick and explore.

3. Simone Fattal, Balice Hertling

Simone Fattal is one of the icons of French art. She was born in Damascus, grew up in Lebanon, and studied philosophy in Paris. And, after fleeing the Civil War in her native country, she relocated to California to run an experimental literary press. Fattal returned to art in 1988, gaining prominence in sculpture, collage, painting and watercolours. Drawing from her experience of existing in different cultures, she draws from history and memory, and explores the landscape, ancient religions, mythologies and human existence in their timeless grip

4. Barthélémy Toguo, Galerie Lelong & Co.

Barthélémy Toguo is a Cameroonian painter, visual and performing artist born in 1967. Splitting his time between Paris and Cameroon’s Bandjoun, he explores the tension and exchange of resources and cultures between the West and the rest of the world. His visceral paintings and watercolours merge human and animal forms, and more abstract motives – exploring the merging of identities and the politics of travelling and inhabiting spaces.

5. Francoise Pétrovitch, Semiose

Based in Cachan outside Paris, Francoise Pétrovitch works across drawing, painting, sculpture and video. Her practice spans several decades and explores the elusive emotional and physical states we experience as part of our daily lives. From human figures and pets to, at times, well-known biblical tropes, her works always strike an invisible nerve in the viewer, while also showing a masterful skill with dark shades of watercolor or saturated oil paint. 
 
Explore Soho House Paris here.