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Theme 2022: Transparencies and Lights
« Transparency » is a theme that runs through the history of artistic practices.
From cubism to constructivism, from surrealism to kinetic art, from Picabia (the Transparencies series) to Marcel Duchamp (The Large Glass « Le Grand Verre »), from Pop art to contemporary stained glass (Viallat, Soulages, Dibbets) to today’s urban art.
Both literally (materials and techniques such as glass or pictorial work) and figuratively (poetic, political or societal positioning), the aesthetic stakes of transparency cover architecture, sculpture, painting, as well as watercolor, photography, video art, glass work, stained glass, jewelry, tattooing, airbrushing, scratching, installations.
In a rapidly-changing world where transparency and opacity are opposed in different forms (the mask we wear is a good example), the 2022 edition of Lille Art Up! invites artists and art galleries to address this issue rich in multiples enlightenments.
If transparency means in the first place that a body allows itself to be crossed by light, it is therefore under the double sign of Transparency and Light that the Fair is set. For the greater pleasure of the public. For the beauty of the artworks.
The Lille Art Up! selection committee
Lille Art Up! 2023
From 9 to 12 march at Lille Grand Palais
Lille Art Up! in a few words
Lille Art Up! is a contemporary art fair created in 2008 by Lille Grand Palais. Every year, it welcomes about a hundred contemporary art galleries and nearly 40,000 visitors during the four-days event.
As a must-see artistic event, Lille Art Up! is the first regional contemporary art fair with art galleries from Lille, Hauts-de-France, but also from France and abroad, all selected by an artistic committee.
A contemporary art gallery is an exhibition space specifically designed to showcase works of art and present them to the public. The art gallery selects the artists it wishes to exhibit and provides them not only with a space but also with special support to make their work known.
Like art galleries, the Lille art fair is also a privileged place for the works of contemporary artists.
The artwork exhibited is various : paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, videos… Contemporary art is represented in all forms and styles.
To discover all the artists and their artwork presented during the fair, you can browse our pages dedicated to the galleries and artists and enjoy the experience of visiting an online art gallery.
Lille Art Up! is also an epicenter of the art market in the region. Thus, collectors benefit from a privileged moment during the opening of the fair to discover contemporary artists and their work.
As a true cultural event, the fair also welcomes partners such as museums in Lille and its area, art schools, art centers and other cultural structures, thus creating a real dynamic between the various players from the art world.
In parallel with the art galleries, Lille Art Up! also hosts contemporary art exhibitions around a different theme each year. Some of these exhibitions are presented by museums or cultural structures, others highlight new artists. The contemporary art fair of Lille is also revealing talents by hosting each year the Revelation by Lille Art Up! event which presents the works of young student artists from the Euroregion.
the artistic committee
The artistic committee of Lille Art Up! studies each gallery's application on the basis of an iconographic file presenting the selection of works that the gallery owner wishes to exhibit during the fair.
Didier
VESSE
Lille Art Up! artistic director
Marie-Françoise
BOUTTEMY
Art historian and senior curator
Jean-Baptiste
CARDON
Art collector
Samantha
DEMAN
Les Echos editor-in-chief
Anne-Cécile
HERVÉ
Lille Grand Palais director of special events
Axel
LEMMENS
Artik Projekten BV. Nord Europe Lille Art Up! commercial development
Annuschka
LEUNG
Off Course Brussels co-director
Nathalie
MAZEMAN
Business developer
Jean-Luc
MOREAU
President of the association Lille Art Galleries
Eddy
NEBEL
Art collector
Eléonore
PERETI
Musverre director
Richard
SKRYZAK
Videomaker, writer, videoart professor at the Tourcoing ESA and Valenciennes University
