Paris Launches First International Urban Art Fair with Bologna Galleries and Artists

Paris is launching its first international fair dedicated exclusively to urban art, the Urban Art Fair, opening April 21 at Carreau du Temple in the Haut-Marais district. The fair will run for four days, bringing together 33 international galleries specializing in urban art, selected by director Yannick Boesso. Among the participants are Urban Spree and Open Walls from Berlin, 34 Fine Art (Cape Town/London), Graffik Gallery from London, Kallenbach Gallery and Vroom & Varossieau from Amsterdam. The only Italian gallery, Portanova12 Gallery from Bologna, will present five artists: Etnik, Gola Hundun, Salvo Ligama, OPIEMME, UNO, and Polish street artist Nespoon. Bologna also contributes curators and art historians Claudio Musso and Fabiola Naldi, invited by Boesso to coordinate a series of talks on April 23. The four talks will address historical-critical perspectives, the relationship with the city, the market, and communication. Notable guests include photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, who documented early New York graffiti; Charles Hargrove (Kool Koor), a contemporary of Basquiat and Keith Haring; and Torrick Ablack (Toxic), a pioneer of graffiti art. The fair will feature major works by Blek Le Rat and Banksy, and the first French screening of the documentary "Girl Power" by Sany, focusing on female graffiti artists. The fair strategically precedes Stroke Art Fair (May 4-8), the historic urban art, design, and lifestyle fair founded in Munich in 2009.