#237 22 february 2016

 

expansion

  Lazarides: fundraising, develop-

ment and e-commerce

a

ccording to the 

Financial Times, galle-

ry owner Steve Lazarides has signed an 

agreement with wealthy Qatari investor Wissam 

Al-Mana. This financial contribution is expected 

to allow the gallery on Oxford Street (London) 

to move, and enable Steve Lazarides to develop 

on Internet.

Last week, to mark the gallery’s 10

th

 birthday, the 

exhibition “A Decade of Lazarides” opened to the 

public, comprising new creations by the most si-

gnificant street artists including Jonathan Yeo, JR 

and Invader. Lazarides thus sends out a message 

to the whole of the art world, hinting at vengeance 

for this atypical figure in the gallery milieu. The 

gallerist makes the following declaration: "Firstly, 

no one can ever pronounce the name so we're 

changing it to LazInc. Secondly, we're moving to 

Mayfair. We've spent years working from a posi-

tion of isolation, and now it's time to challenge the 

status quo from the inside. I can hear the shouts of 

'Sell-out!' on the Internet from here. But find out 

what we have planned before you dish out any 

hate."

So is Street Art in full expansion? At the start of his 

relationship with Banksy, Lazarides would sell the 

artist’s screen prints for £25. In 2014, they were 

worth 10 or 100 times more. A sure way to keep 

growing, perhaps at the risk of somewhat losing 

one’s street cred.

Galleries

 crisis 

 the brazilian art market crumbles due to economic crisis

have melted by 30 %. At the Galeria Luisa Strina, the strategy is to look 

overseas to boost activity (ARCOmadrid and The Armory Show). And yet, 

sales globally increased between 2014 and 2015, producing $67 million in 

2015 as opposed to $34 million in 2014. The Galeria Nara Roesler opened 

a showroom in New York on top of its two spaces in Sao Paulo and Rio de 

Janeiro. 

Faced with this situation, gallerists reveal signs of concern about the country’s 

economic situation: the Brazilian currency has lost almost a quarter of its va-

lue compared to the dollar, unemployment is on the rise, the economy is 

out of breath, and the government has acknowledged that it is undergoing 

recession.

w

hile observers have praised its resistance in 

the face of the country’s economic problems, 

Brazil’s art market has now well and truly plumme-

ted into the crisis.

The past year has not been a good one for the 

country, and many gallerists have come out with 

turnovers down by 50 %. If 2016 continues on 

this note, it will be a disastrous year, announce 

commentators. The Galeria Millan, for example, 

one of Brazil’s oldest galleries, is losing 40 % of 

its income while at the Galeria Fortes Vilaça, sales 

 

opening

  a new space on the Lower east 

side: totah 

d

avid Totah is opening a new space, Totah, 

on the Lower East Side, demonstrating the 

deep-running trend of galleries settling in this 

New York district.

Totah will be opening on 25 February at 183 

Stanton Street with an exhibition co-featuring 

conceptual artist Mel Bochner and the master 

of Arte Povera Alighiero Boetti. The exhibition, 

called “Verba Volant Scripta Manent”, will tackle 

the whimsical theme of puns.

The space will be dedicated to modern and 

contemporary art, with an aim to “acknowledge 

and channel the creative dialogue between the 

artist, their perception and their work through 

our platform.” 

 

opening

  massimo de carlo to open a new 

space in milan in april

H

ot on the heels of his January announcement 

of the opening of a third space in Hong Kong 

in March 2016, Massimo De Carlo is now ope-

ning a fourth space in Milan in April.

For his second gallery in Milan, Massimo De Car-

lo has chosen to set up in the Palazzo Belgioioso, 

in the city’s historic district.

The inaugural exhibition programme has not yet 

been released, unlike that of the Hong Kong gal-

lery that will be welcoming new works by Yan Pei-

Ming. 

Steve Lazarides and Shepard 

Fairey

© Shepard Fairey

Obscene (2006)

Mel Bochner

Courtesy of Totah

 17 

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237

 • 22 february 2016

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 Propos d’Europe 14

"Thoughts that breathe"

Exhibition view

Photo Aurélie Cenno

Courtesy of Fondation Hippocrène

Hippocrene, a bLend 

of famiLy and 

pHiLantHropic vaLues  

t

aking over from her father as head of the 

Hippocrene Foundation (Paris) in 2006, Mi-

chèle Guyot-Roze can be said to have in-

herited the foundation’s genes: family and 

philanthropy. To celebrate her tenth year in 

this position, Art Media Agency went to meet her.

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could you present the foundation to us? 

The Hippocrene Foundation is an independent, 

family-run public utility foundation. Our positio-

ning is very much European because our mis-

sion is to create a real European citizenship. 

So this is why we support projects and set up 

partnerships in the wide-ranging domains of 

culture, education, humanitarian and social 

action. For example, in 2010 we launched the 

Hippocrene Prize for Education about Europe, a 

competition organised in schools in partnership 

with the French Ministry of Education.

what activities do you develop in contempo-

rary art? 

First of all, we organise one exhibition per year 

since 2002 : Propos d’Europe. These exhibitions 

aim to highlight the artistic scene of a country 

and the richness of cultural diversity in Europe. 

For example, in autumn and winter 2015, we 

held the exhibition “Thoughts That Breathe” in 

the framework of our “Propos d’Europe” pro-

gramme, featuring artists Carol Bove, Martin 

Boyce, Bojan Sarcevic and Markus Schinwald — 

in partnership with the Haubrok foundation.

We also support many initiatives. We lend our 

space to the association Les Pépinières Euro-

péennes that carries out many projects to do 

with young artists. We are letting them put on an 

exhibition here. In March 2015, we also allowed 

collector Daniel Bosser to organise an exhibi-

tion on Claude Rutault: “AMZ ou le soleil brille 

pour tout le monde”.

 Propos d’Europe 14

"Thoughts that breathe"

Exhibition view

Photo Aurélie Cenno

Courtesy of Fondation Hippocrène

interview • 

fondation Hippocrène

I mention our contemporary art initiatives but 

we need to bear in mind that these only repre-

sent 10 % of our activity, and only in the last fif-

teen years or so.

How did this develop? 

My father started organising contemporary art 

exhibitions in 2002. He wasn’t a collector in 

the way this term is understood today, but he 

owned a few works. Today, people are conside-

red collectors as long as they actively buy art. In 

my father’s time, things were different: people 

would buy a decent number of works to hang 

on walls.

My father’s tastes tended towards modern art, 

but thanks to the foundation, he was in contact 

with young artists. He started buying works for 

the foundation, about once a year at first. I car-

ried on this project. Today, it’d be presumptuous 

to declare that our foundation owns a contem-

porary art collection – we only have around forty 

works. Perhaps one day, but today we focus on 

our core activity: spreading the arts throughout 

Europe.

How is the foundation organised? 

Like any foundation of public utility, we have 

a board of directors - which I chair. I have two 

vice-presidents, my sister and my nephew. Do-

rothée, my niece, is in charge of communication. 

The board of directors includes one of my sons 

and one of my nephews. So our family commit-

ment is very strong.

Jean Guyot

Courtesy of Fondation Hippocrène

 19 

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Subscribe for free. 

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237

 • 22 february 2016

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