Katherina Olschbaur
Perrotin, Paris
Until September 21, 2024

For her debut exhibition in Paris, the Austrian-born, US-based artist Katherina Olschbaur presents a series of mostly large-scale oil-on-linen paintings, all made in 2024. Each work is constrained to a single monochrome palette – yellow, blue, red, or violet – and accompanied by a poetic title (Eclipse, The Ritual, The Kiss, etc.), in keeping with the artist’s view that words hold as much significance as color and form. Olschbaur’s vivid, charged works depict a universe populated by human figures – muses, friends, or strangers – and melancholy-looking animals, all suspended in ethereal landscapes, woven together into dreamlike compositions. One of the centerpieces of the exhibition, The Heaviest Sound, is a diptych of disassembled bodies lit by a powerful, burning sun. For the artist, much like for Wassily Kandinsky, each color corresponds to a sound, a vibration, an ensemble of mystical energy.  P.S.

Judy Chicago
‘Herstory’
LUMA Arles
Until September 29, 2024

Judy Chicago has always written her own story. A pioneer of feminist art, her career is often reduced to The Dinner Party (1970), but the artist has had an extensive, curious, rebellious, and evolving practice both before and after she created her iconic installation.

‘Herstory’ at LUMA Arles (conceived with the New Museum, New York) is Chicago’s first retrospective in Europe. Spanning 60 years, the exhibition includes the artist’s major projects, providing a powerful overview of her life and work. Notable inclusions are needlepoints from ‘Birth Project’ (1980-1985) and painted porcelain and glass from the recent series ‘The End: A Meditation on End and Extinction’ (2015-2017).

Chicago has always taught and researched alongside her art practice and recognition has never been her goal: ‘I don’t think art can change the world. I think art can educate, inspire, empower people to act,’ she told Art Basel in 2019. J.A.

Pierre et Gilles
‘Nuit électrique’
Templon, Paris
Until October 26, 2024

It only takes a second to recognize a photograph by Pierre et Gilles. Their portraits of actresses, hunky models, and world-famous writers never fail to feature the artificial lighting, bright colors, symbolic overload, and humorous mise-en-scènes that have become their signature. The images the duo have created together since the 1970s have elevated camp, kitsch, and Queer iconography to new heights and charmed celebrities the world over. In their latest show at Templon’s Grenier Saint Lazare space, Pierre et Gilles present a new body of work, which celebrates Parisian nightlife and its visual cornerstones, from flickering neon lights to glamorous outfits. The exhibition also features portraits of two muses: the legendary singer and performer, Amanda Lear, as well as the queen of all French thespians, Isabelle Huppert. K.C.

Tomasz Machciński
‘American Dream, I made it all because of you’
christian berst art brut, Paris
From September 14 to November 10, 2024

Photography played an extraordinary role in Tomasz Machciński’s life. A childhood picture of the Polish outsider artist, taken during World War II, made it into an American Red Cross adoption catalog; upon seeing it, the Hollywood actor, Joan Tompkins, was so touched she sent the young Machciński an autographed portrait, signed ‘With love for Tommy. Joan “Mom” Tompkins.’ It was the starting point of an improbable relationship, based on a dramatic misunderstanding: for over 20 years, Machciński truly believed Tompkins was his mother. The hope and pain this triggered are echoed in the artist’s powerful works on view at christian berst art brut – all self-portraits in which he presents himself as hundreds of different characters, with a moving directness and stark economy of means. K.C.

Mehdi-Georges Lahlou
‘Comme un baiser, comme une odeur de crème, de couscous, et d’ostie’
Les Jardiniers, Montrouge
Until November 11, 2024

No more excuses not to cross the périph! Les Jardiniers [‘The Gardeners’] is Greater Paris’s new trendy hybrid spot: an art gallery and eco-friendly canteen hosting workshops, conferences, concerts, creative residencies, and more. Founded by Fabrice Hyper and Christophe Vix-Gras, Les Jardiniers opened last April, in Montrouge, on the edge of Paris – a place with a rich artistic history, having been home to Fernand Léger, Robert Doisneau, and Pablo Picasso, and one that remains very much alive today.

In September, Les Jardiniers stages its second exhibition: a solo show by French- Moroccan artist Mehdi-Georges Lahlou. A selection of works made between 2009 and 2014, at the beginning of the artist’s career, explore identity and memory, while confronting tradition and modernity, social and religious stereotypes, and the tensions and coming together of East and West. J.A.

Jacqueline Lamba, Dora Maar
‘Celles qui avancent’
Pauline Pavec, Paris
From September 12 to November 16, 2024

This fall, both Pauline Pavec (one of the newcomers to Art Basel Paris 2024) and Galerie Boquet dedicate an exhibition to the Surrealist artists Jacqueline Lamba and Dora Maar. The two women met in the mid-1920s at the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs and remained friends and collaborators. The exhibition comprises surrealist and abstract works, and rare and unseen pieces, including a fold-out notebook by Maar and canvases by Lamba. This year, which marks the centenary of the Surrealist Manifesto, is a long-overdue opportunity to revisit Maar and Lamba’s work and its key place in 20th-century art, which has previously been overshadowed by the work of their famous partners. J.A.

‘Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing, 1960–1991’
MUDAM, Luxembourg
From September 20, 2024 to February 2, 2025

The exhibition ‘Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing, 1960–1991’ at MUDAM, Luxembourg presents a groundbreaking survey of digital art from a feminist perspective. Featuring over 100 works by 50 female artists, the show explores the pioneering role of women in technology and art from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Focusing on the pre-Internet era, and titled after a visionary magazine published between 1970 and 1974, the show aims to highlight the significant contributions by women to digital art. It contextualizes this history within broader technological and sociological developments, connecting to contemporary discussions on technology, identity, and equality and seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of the history of digital art. Featured artists include Rebecca Allen, Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, Analívia Cordeiro, Isa Genzken, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Alison Knowles, Rosemarie Trockel, and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven. J.F.