Kamel Mennour – Matignon

The first space, 50sqm, was inaugurated on Rue Mazarine in 1999. Dedicated to contemporary photography, the gallery showed works of international artists, little known in France, like Larry Clark, Stephen Shore or Nobuyoshi Araki, alongside more established artists such as Pierre Molinier. Meanwhile, the gallery began to publish catalogs, accompanying these exhibitions. Today more than forty catalogs have been published by Kamel Mennour Editions.

The gallery gained reputation abroad by participating for the first time at Paris Photo in 1999, at the FIAC in 2000 and at Art Basel in 2003. Since, the gallery is present in most of the major international art fairs such as Art Basel, FIAC and Art Basel Miami Beach.

In 2003, the gallery starts to diversify its programming by promoting young contemporary artists as well as established artists working in different media: Daniel Buren, Claude Lévêque, François Morellet and Martin Parr gradually integrate the gallery’s roster.

In September 2007, the gallery expands and invests a new space of 400 m2 in the Hôtel particulier of Vieuville (seventeenth century), located at 47, rue Saint-André-des-arts. Designed by architects Aldric Beckmann and Françoise N’Thépé, it was inaugurated with a solo exhibition by Daniel Buren. The initial space of the Rue Mazarine shows specific projects. In the following years the gallery continues to exhibit young emerging artists (Mohamed Bourouissa, Camille Henrot, Latifa Echakhch, Dario Escobar, Alicja Kwade) and established artists, which include among others Huang Yong Ping, Anish Kapoor, Tadashi Kawamata, Lee Ufan, Gina Pane or Martial Raysse.

Besides solo exhibitions, historical dialogues are held regularly (Daniel Buren and Alberto Giacometti in 2010, François Morellet and Kasimir Malevich in 2011), as well as group and thematic exhibitions, such as the exhibition of “Lux Perpetua” (2012) addressing the treatment of light from Delacroix to Ann Veronica Janssens, or “L’image pensée” (2013, curated by Donatien Grau), dedicated to the use of slideshows by contemporary artists.

Parallel to the gallery program, the gallery regularly collaborates with institutions to conduct significant off site projects, such as “Arche 2009” by Huang Yong Ping in the Chapelle des Beaux-Arts de Paris, the 2011 and 2012 Monumenta exhibitions, respectively by Anish Kapoor and Daniel Buren at the Grand Palais. Other major collaborations were Claude Lévêque’s solo presentation at the 2009 French Pavilion in Venice Biennale as well as Sigalit Landau’s contribution to the Israelian Pavilion in 2011 and recently Camille Henrot’s video Grosse Fatigue (2013), awarded with the silver Lion for the most promising young artist.

In September 2013, the gallery doubles its exhibition space by opening a second space on 6, rue du Pont de Lodi which allows to host monumental works under a vast glass roof, as inaugural exhibition by the Arte Povera artist Pier Paolo Calzolari.