Alexandre Vieira’s journey in contemporary art
From parisian galleries to global art advisory, redefining the art market
Biography
Alexandre Vieira has started his art career in 2010 with the creation of Wide Painting, a contemporary art gallery located in Paris in the famous St Germain area. Elected the youngest gallerist in France in Edgar Magazine in 2012, Alexandre Vieira has had the will to help and promote several of his contemporaries, launching 6 emerging artists on the art market : Marion Colomer and Timothée Talard from Beaux-Arts de Paris, Julien Grudzinski from Beaux-Arts d’Aix-en- Provence, Catherine Javel from Beaux-Arts de Versailles, the fashion photographer Susanne Stemmer and the street artist Le Diamantaire.
With Wide Painting, Alexandre Vieira has supported these artists, in a continual artistic dialogue on their works, creating 13 exhibitions in his gallery in Paris and 4 “off the wall” exhibitions : in Paris at the Parc de Bagatelle and at the restaurants Miss Ko and Jacopo on Champs-Élysées, in New York at the restaurant Cipriani.
By the quality of Alexandre Vieira’s artistic choices, Wide Painting has been selected to be represented on Artsy, the art world leader web platform, from 2016 to 2022. Wide Painting has made exhibited its artists in museums, in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo and at Art 42; in international art fairs, in Paris at the Show Off art fair and at the Nuit Blanche event selected by the Paris City Hall, in Italy at the Venice Art Biennale at the Palazzo Mora selected by the European Cultural Centre. About the media coverage of artists and exhibitions, Wide Painting has been featured in more than 70 international media as France 2 TV, M6 TV, Paris Première TV, ORF TV, Madame Figaro, GQ, Paris Capitale, Arts Magazine, art press, Lifestyle Mag.
Since 2010, Alexandre Vieira has visited major international art fairs as Art Basel in Basel and Miami to meet his collectors and to follow and analyze the art market. This way, Alexandre Vieira was able to create a large artist database seeing a lot of artist works and spotting the most talented artists. In 2024, Alexandre Vieira has opened a new chapter with AVAA, a company dedicated to art advisory on contemporary art. AVAA is born from the desire of Alexandre Vieira to mix his gallerist eye to his art market knowledge to advise collectors on their acquisitions.
Interview of Alexandre Vieira
LM: You have been a gallerist for 12 years with Wide Painting. Could you select us some highlights about your exhibitions?
AV: 2012 : Off the wall exhibition at the Parc de Bagatelle in Paris with the artist Julien Grudzinski.
In 2012, I launched the artist Julien Grudzinski, exhibiting in my gallery his series “In symbols we trust”. In this series, the artist did some paintings with reference to the French queen Marie-Antoinette. With his surrealist and classicism contemporary style, Julien Grudzinski wanted to play with this symbol of the monarchy. I always wanted to do off the wall exhibitions to go to the public. These paintings were the perfect occasion to do my first one. The Parc de Bagatelle and his castle in Paris were a place where the old regime and the queen Marie-Antoinette used to have fun in a libertine mood. It is far away from the picture we could have of the symbol of a queen. This historical fact totally matched with the work of Julien Grudzinski. I contacted the Parc de Bagatelle to present the idea of an exhibition. They had to get the authorization of the Paris City Hall. I was little worried about this authorization because it is not easy to touch about French symbols. When we got the green light, we were very excited to do an exhibition in such an historical place. The more fun part is the Parc de Bagatelle is a nightclub place on the weekend. During the exhibition, people were dancing, seeing the paintings of Marie-Antoinette, this queen who was also dancing there 250 years ago!
2014 : Off the wall exhibition at Miss Ko in Paris with the artist Le Diamantaire
When I met Le Diamantaire in 2013, he was already known from his work on the street. I really loved his work and his artistic message. At the same time, I wanted to exhibit in my gallery something different from what he did in the street as street art takes its essence from the street. So, on my first meeting with Le Diamantaire I took a shot at asking him if he could make sculptures about his current work. The very good surprise is Le Diamantaire was also thinking to do something different from his work on the street, and he was planning to create sculptures as he studied how to work the glass and the metal. In this way, we launched his first series of sculptures in my gallery in 2014. As Le Diamantaire was known from the street, I wanted to do, at the same time than the gallery exhibition, something to go to the public. I was in contact with Miss Ko, a new big restaurant in Paris designed by Philippe Starck and located in the Champs-Élysées area. I presented to Miss Ko a project of an exhibition with Le Diamantaire sculptures. This exhibition project had to be reviewed also by Philippe Starck. Associate an emerging artist to one of the best designers in the world was a real challenge. When we learned Miss Ko and Philippe Starck were ok to let us do this exhibition, we were really excited. They liked the artworks of Le Diamantaire and the recycling message of the artist as the artworks are made by recycling as all the furniture of the Miss Ko restaurant. Watch the public discovering the artworks, thinking they know this work from the street was a real reward for the artist and I. There is still a sculpture to see at Miss Ko which was offered by the artist.
2015 : Museum exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris with the artist Julien Grudzinski
In 2015, the artist Julien Grudzinski, with the support of my gallery, was selected to exhibit one artwork at the Palais de Tokyo Museum for a collective exhibition representing promising emerging artists. For the occasion, Julien Grudzinski created an amazing art piece called “Eternal Cells” symbolizing the future of health by a DNA molecule able to self-reconstruct. This art piece has been the first step for the artist in the development of his new series called “Energy Flow” that I launched in 2016 in my gallery. The message of this series is very strong, and the visuals are very new. One day, I received on Artsy a request about this series from a collector named Beta who wanted to buy several pieces including the one exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo. At the end of her email, her signature was gunsnroses.com. I was intrigued by this, so I asked Beta if she was in link with the band. Her answer made me realized I was talking to Beta Lebeis, the manager of Axl Rose. She was buying these artworks on his behalf for his house in Malibu. I said to myself oh my… then I got a flashback from my teens when I wore the tee shirt of Guns N’ Roses band. Axl Rose is such a talented artist who has marked so many generations, I was very happy that the works of Julien Grudzinski inspired him. I like when artists communicate to each other through their respective art.
Artwork pictures from the series “Energy Flow” :
2017 : Art fair exhibition at the Venice Art Biennale with the artist Susanne Stemmer
In 2017, the artist Susanne Stemmer, with the support of my gallery, was selected by the European Cultural Centre to exhibit at the Palazzo Mora for the 57th Venice Art Biennale. It was such a reward and an honor for an emerging artist and an emerging gallery to exhibit at the most prestigious art fair in the world than Susanne Stemmer and I had the willingness to mark the art world. As the Venice Art Biennale takes place everywhere in the city, we wanted to go to the public. At that time, Susanne Stemmer was testing a new medium, the video. We thought that the Biennale could be the perfect occasion to launch her art video as the video is able to reach many people at the same time. Then Susanne Stemmer had a crazy idea : immerse digitally the Palazzo Mora under water. The craziest is she did it! She projected a video show with sound effects on the facade of the Palazzo Mora to offer to the public from the street a beautiful mermaid dancing under water. This show was released every night for one week from sunset to midnight. It was amazing to see people stop by and enter in the artist universe. After Venice, Susanne Stemmer exhibited her art video in Paris and Vienna.
LM: You have started a new activity as an art advisor with your new company AVAA. Could you tell us how it came ?
AV: In December 2022, I closed my gallery. The Covid period was really hard for all the galleries, especially the small and the medium ones. I took this as na opportunity to start a new cycle in the art world becoming an art advisor with the creation of AVAA. The idea to become an art advisor came naturally. Indeed, since 2010, with my activity of gallerist, I have visited major international art fairs as Art Basel in Basel and Miami to meet my collectors and to follow and analyze the art market. This way, I was able to create, for 14 years, a large artist database seeing a lot of artist works and spotting the most talented artists. Through the years, I saw some of the talented artists I spotted becoming leading artists with selections by foundations and museums. Their market value totally changed. This has confirmed my desire to mix my gallerist eye to my art market knowledge to advise collectors on their acquisitions. My experience in art allowed me also to build strong relationships with galleries, first because I did this job so we share the same passion for artists, and because I follow and support their artists for a long time, so when one of them becomes a leading artist, they appreciate the support I offered to them.
LM: What is the type of collectors you work with ?
AV: I work with different profiles of collectors as private individuals, companies and foundations into their artwork research on the contemporary art market. Each of these profiles presents diverse needs and gets specific tax laws on the artwork acquisition, which is a major point as collecting art is also an investment.
LM: What is your way to work with these collectors ?
AV: First, I listen to them around three topics to know their vision on their acquisition. The first topic is the budget to know what type of artist I can present : emerging artist, emerging artist already exhibited in major art fairs, mid-career artist, blue-chip artist. The second topic is the project : first acquisition, interior design, portfolio diversification, company brand image, build a collection, specific research for a collection, create an exhibition. The third topic is about the tastes of the collector. To define them precisely, I have created a questionary which broaches different points as the choice of the medium (painting, sculpture, wall sculpture, photography, video, mix media), the visual (figurative or abstract), the period, the topic, the artist nationality, the colors used. This questionary allows me to offer to my collector a personalized service, as I only select in my database, specific artists linked my collector tastes.
In a second phase, I present a selection of artists to my collector sharing with him my gallerist eye and my art market analysis. Each artist presented is followed by precise information on the artist profile, the artistic series produced (artistic message, number of production years, number of art pieces produced), the exhibitions done, the market value evolution, the key players support (galleries, foundations, museums), the auction house’s results and the media coverage.
If an artist presented fits to the collector expectations, then starts the third phase. I will look for art pieces from this artist available to sale on the art Market using my network through diverse sources (first market gallery, second market gallery, artist, private collector). If the collector decides to purchase the art piece, I negotiate with the art piece seller (gallery, artist, private collector) to get the best possible price for the collector. The selling price is transparent as the collector gets the invoice directly from the art piece seller. I also supervise all legalities of the art piece acquisition, shipping and insurance.
LM: What is your remuneration for all this work ?
AV:I take a percentage of the art piece purchase price. This commission is paid by the collector and is due only in case of a successful sale. I don’t get any commission from the seller (gallery, artist, private collector) in order to preserve the collector interests providing an impartial approach in the artwork suggestion.
To know more about Alexandre’s work, visit his website avaa.art.
