The opening of Vincent Gagliostro’s exhibition “If I Should Lose You” last Thursday night, was a fun and glamorous affair. The Champagne flowed and the chatter was high as friends, clients, groupies, and even some unexpected surprise guests came to celebrate Vincent’s first Paris exhibition.
The ambitious show of paintings, drawings, photos and one video is about loss on a personal and global level. Although it’s about loss, it was not depressing and evoked a sense of reflection of loss rather than the sadness of it.
Most of the crowd was fixated on the wall of 144 small abstract framed photographs. The affordable (80 euros) and accessible photos printed on high gloss metallic paper have a unique interactive approach: when someone purchases one, they write on a card something or someone they have lost and place the card where the picture hung. When the crowd cleared, they had happily decimated the wall and left their messages behind.
The Great Wall - of photographs.
The centerpiece of the show is a wall of eight stunning floor to ceiling drawings of graphite, collage and latex on Japanese drawing paper.
The video has powerful images that jump from Peter Pan to an extreme close-up of George Bush, to innocent young boys at the sea with a haunting, score that includes music from Maria Callas and Nina Simone’s “If I Should Lose You”. I love the juxtaposition of the sometimes harsh, in your face images with the romantic music in the background. A large part of the video focuses on Vincent Galgliostro’s work as an AIDS activist in New York in the early 90’s and shows scenes from ACT-UP demonstrations (ACT-UP is a controversial AIDS organization that powerfully changed the face of the disease) and movingly commemorates friends he lost to the epidemic.
The Glamorous Crowd
Roger Nilsson,Man of Evening Vincent Gagliostro, Alain Chiglien, and Moi
Michael O'Brien, Vincent & Diane Pernet
Hollywood Glamour- Christos and Advice Goddess Amy Alkon from LA
Artist Rosemary Flannery and Moi
My Eye Prefer Paris tour clients Kathy, Emily, Jenny, and K.C.
Chic Paris Boys
Patricia LaPlante Collins
There was even some star power: French superstar and actress Carole Bouquet, who is a client of the gallery owned by Alain Chiglien and Roger Nilsson, had innocently dropped by the gallery on Tuesday to drop off some home made jelly she made for them. She ended up spending almost 45 minutes marveling at the work and sadly said could not attend the opening but promised she would come back to see the show.
Carol Boquet
Don’t miss this moving, provocative and highly personal show.
If I Should Lose You
Exhibit till October 13
Galerie NEC/Nilsson & Chiglien
117 rue Vielle du Temple
01.42.77.88.83
Tuesday-Saturday 11-7:30PM
Metro: St. Paul, Filles du Calvaire
gagliostro.com
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
I was so sorry to miss the opening! I can't wait to stop by the gallery to see the exhibit.
Posted by: Polly | September 17, 2007 at 02:55 PM
I had a great time being in such a fun PROFESSIONALLY mounted show. I could have spent hours in front of the videos. Great people. A rare Paris treat to be able to attend such an event (I think that Richard often offers special treats like this to people on his tours).
Congratulations Vincent! - Patricia Laplante-Collins
(And thanks for taking such a fun photo of me).
Posted by: Patricia Laplante-Collins | September 19, 2007 at 12:00 AM