Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/1525926
C O U R T E S Y O F A M E L I E M A I S O N D 'A R T Amelie, Maison d'art, as she christened her enterprise, focuses on "works you want to live with," mostly abstract art, in every medium, and across price points, from a diverse roster of 100 international artists, presented in a residential setting with a very bespoke client approach. On view during a recent visit to the Paris gallery are wood wall hangings from French artist Francis Limérat, chiffon tableaux from Belgian photographer Alex De Bruycker, and sculptural vases from Japanese ceramicist Kazunori Hamana, all mixed in with contemporary furniture that was custom-made for the space. "You don't have to present only one artist," says du Chalard. "We want to show that everything fits well together when it's selected by the same eye." Prospective buyers, by appointment, get "personalized hangings" of the art they want to see, curated from the full catalog of works (available on the gallery's website, ameliemaisondart.com). The space is constantly changing. "We have three guys dedicated full-time to hanging art in Paris," she says. "We are quite agile. Sometimes I say I am a logistician, first. The key to the business is very good logistics." The one-of-a-kind furniture in the Paris gallery and in its New York sibling, which opened in SoHo in April, is meant to complement the art—most of it not for sale. She hopes the domestic backdrop will both inspire and help take some of the pretense out of the art-buying experience. "In the bank where I worked, I was surrounded by people that had a lot of money, liked beautiful things, but never went to galleries," she says. "They found them cold, intimidating." Du Chalard's isn't the first business to blur the lines between the art and design worlds and to work in a residential setting. But while many enterprises, like Salon 94 and The Future Perfect, sell art and design together—working to erase the distinctions—Amelie, Maison d'art focuses almost exclusively on the paintings and sculptures it sells. Du Chalard grew up in a home filled with art—her mother is a sculptor, her father a corporate lawyer who was also an avid collector—in the affluent 16 th arrondissement of Paris. "It's interesting to have grown up with these two pillars, one more business-oriented, the other creative, free," she says. After studying finance in Paris and in Seoul, du Chalard joined the M&A department at Rothschild & Co, working out of the investment bank's Paris headquarters. Collecting became an obsession. "I spent all my money on art, buying emerging artists but also some famous ones," she says. "Sometimes In the Paris gallery, a painting by Laure Carré sits on a travertine wall; on the back wall is a work on paper by Alice Quaresm. BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M