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 Recalling the deals she'd done for fashion brands like Sonia Ryk iel and Isabel Marant— "accessible luxury," as she refers to them, in between the "Chanels and the Zaras"— she saw a similar void in the art market and set out to fill it. I feel more American than French in my way of collecting. Very spontaneous; [if] I like it, I want it." In 2015 she left finance to open her first gallery near Montmartre (relocating to the Left Bank in 2021). Many of her early visitors assumed they were stepping into her home. "No, not my home," she told them. "But I'm happy to hear you say that. That's the feeling I was going for." She started with artists whose work she collected, and her first clients came from her personal network of bankers and lawyers. In a departure from the contemporary art world's frequent focus on edgy, often transgressive, work, she filled her gallery with unapologetically beautiful things. "I didn't do things like a regular gallery," she says, "I did things in a way that could be seen as more decorative—it's not my goal, but it could feel like that. In art, beautiful is a gros mot, a bad word. When it's beautiful it's not good." Despite her unconventional approach, or perhaps thanks to it, du Chalard says business is booming. In addition to the slate of fall exhibitions, look for a whole new collection of beautiful work from the gallery at La Fondation, the debut hotel project from New York architecture and design studio Roman and Williams, opening in Paris this fall. A recent design exhibition in Paris, "Interior with a Lamp," was a tribute to David Hockney, recreating his painting with bespoke contemporary pieces. In Paris, works by artist Ludovic Philippon surround De La Espada furniture by Anthony Guerrée BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M