ARTE: Diversity in the Art world

An interview with Diversity Executive about the art world and our unique place in it.

The art world might seem colorful and forward-thinking, but it’s just as behind in diversity as some of the more conservative industries. Like all other businesses, however, it does have its standout stars that break the white-male mold. Michelle Joan Papillion is one of them.

Papillion opened her second Los Angeles art gallery in February and also runs an art advisory business under the umbrella of her company, Papillion Art. At 32, her five-year-old business allows her to pursue the same passions she had growing up: to create and surround herself with similarly artistic people.

“I always joke and say that I’m a lazy worker because working for someone else, it was never a hundred percent,” Papillion said. To realize her dream of being her own boss, she decided to start her own company when she was in her 20s. “As time went by I started realizing I would spend what people call ‘the best years of your life’ working for myself and building my own art empire.”

Full interview HERE.

ARTE: BEST OF LA!!!

Super stoked to be listed on LA WEEKLY's Best of LA 2014 list!!!! Check us out as the Best Art Gallery Off The Beaten Path :-) the write up sums up very accuartely what we are all about!

ARTE: WWD

Thank you Women's Wear Daily for profiling us! And for writing about the arts revolution we are hoping to spark in Leimert Park.  It has been an incredible 6 months being open in our new neighborhood and we couldn't be more happy to be adding to Leimert's rich legacy and creating new history.

On a recent August afternoon in Los Angeles, Michelle Joan Papillion was taking a break inside her sprawling, whitewashed gallery in Leimert Park. She was a few days away from finishing preparations for a new exhibit and was enjoying a rare moment of peace before an upcoming opening. 

Papillion, in a loose-fitting tank and skirt, hasn’t had many of those moments lately. 

Since she opened her first gallery four years ago, the 32-year-old has emerged as one of L.A.’s gallerists to watch, thanks to her hit shows and prominent supporters, like Jeffrey Deitch and Franklin Sirmans, chief curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

“I wanted to be stimulated by many different things and different types of people in one space,” she says casually by way of explaining her rise in the art world. “And I know how to do that through art.”

Papillion grew up in Oakland with a deep interest in the arts, though she wasn’t quite sure what form that interest would take. After high school, she pursued an art history degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C., but her real education came from the people she encountered socially on trips to gallery openings in Manhattan in the early Aughts.

Read the rest of the article online here

ARTE: Town & Country

Happy to be included in the LA issue of Town & Country Magazine. We're in great company as one of the "34 genuises turning it into America's capital of cool!" In over its 100 years of exsistence T&C has never had a guest editor, Liz Goldwyn was the first and its an honor.  Its on newsstands now but you can read the online interview about "the LA galleriests who are remaking the art scene in their own image" HERE

Michelle Joan Papillion

Papillion

Papillion moved from New York in 2008, opening her first gallery four years ago.

HOW HAS THE ART SCENE CHANGED SINCE YOU MOVED TO L.A.?  "Back in 2008, the art community seemed very insular. It was not so inviting for an outsider. But all of that has changed. It's now the hippest place for an artist to be, and the scene feels very open and expansive."

WHAT'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT CHANGE? "I don't think there's one thing, though technology is definitely a key ingredient in facilitating the growth of the scene. Social media has been a big game changer—here and everywhere."

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A NEW YORK AND AN L.A. COLLECTOR?  "There is a greater passion for and commitment to supporting local artists here."

HOW WOULD YOU RATE L.A.'S MUSEUMS? "They are world class. I travel a great deal for work, to view exhibitions around the globe. Your Bright Future at LACMA and Art in the Streets at MOCA are in my top ten exhibitions ever. And I always look forward to MADE IN LA, the biennial at the Hammer."

IS IT EASIER TO BE A FEMALE ARTIST IN L.A.? "No. Women have to work harder and smarter to be recognized in the same circles as their male contemporaries. Diversity in the contemporary art world is not as progressive as many would think. The work of some of my favorite L.A. artists—like Miranda July and Kenturah Davis—are adding important things to this conversation."

WHAT'S THE MOST EXCITING GALLERY NEIGHBORHOOD?  "Regen Projects, LACE, and HVW8—all in Hollywood. But Leimert Park, where I opened my second gallery this year, is becoming the next great art destination."

IS THERE A SONG THAT SUMS UP L.A. FOR YOU? "Kendrick Lamar's album Good Kid M.A.A.D City."

ARTE: TOUCHING THE ART

Our new art world boo is Casey Jane Ellison!  We are happy to be a part of Touching the Art - Episode 2 - Postmodernism, post-Net & The Art Market on Ovation!

ARTE: VOGUE

Thrilled, excited and surprised to be in such great company in the July issue of Vogue Magazine, with Lupita Nyong'o on the cover.  Elizabeth von Thurn und Taxis came to visit us on a recent west coast trip and wrote about it in her TNT coloumn of the magazine.  

Here's a snippet:

"What I found most inspiring about L.A.;s art scene was the unexpected young female force it bears.  I met a series of passionate and very noteworthy women - gallerists and artists alike.  What a relief from art-world machismo! Take Michelle Joan Papillion, who, with a great eye for emerging talent, recently set up shop in Leimert Park, an area with few galleries. "I think of Leimert Park as a flower waiting to bloom," she told me. "Three years from now, this place will be the talk of the art-and-culture scene."

ARTE: LA Times Feature!!!

Thank you Los Angeles Times for the prominent feature in today's Business section!  The story speaks about our perspective and vision on Leimert Park and how we think art can transform the community. Peep the Noah Davis "Temptations" painting and the Lisa C Soto sculpture, the photo was taken in our private upstairs gallery :-) Click the CONTACT tab to inquire about these available works.

ARTE: Creating A Scene

Pick up a copy of this week's LA Weekly.  Its a wonderful, informed article about us and our position in the LA Artworld.  It also goes into the history of the neighborhood and our vision for what we'd like to contribute to it. A snippet below.

Leimert Park Village is a stretch of storefronts that looks like a small town square tucked into a big city. That's where Michelle Papillion has a new gallery, and she titled its debut show "Open."

"It's really sort of an inside joke," she says. "Even the day before we had our grand opening, people were like, 'Are you sure you're going to be open?' Because there was still stuff on the floors, a big construction mess."

The space, like a lot of storefronts in the village that's just east of Crenshaw Boulevard, had been vacant for three years before Papillion arrived. "Mother Nature had taken over," she says. She had to patch up walls and tile the floors before installing the show.

But on the evening of Feb. 15, as scheduled, she had a pink neon sign saying "Papillion" above the entrance and work by eight emerging artists installed inside, including David Sigmund's wood-laminate sculptures in the window; colorful keyboards by Nzuji de Magalhaes against the sidewall of the first room; and Raksha Parekh's sugarcane-paper tendons hanging from the ceiling in the second room.

About 500 people came through that night, among them London dealer Jay Jopling; former MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch; neighborhood residents; and artists' parents and siblings. Papillion planned to close by 9 p.m. Instead, she was locking up a little after midnight.

Danielle Dean, a London-born L.A. artist whose work is elegantly populistic and who has a video in "Open," went for post-opening drinks with friends. She recalls one of those friends announcing, "I just want to propose a toast to what I think is an emerging scene."

ARTE: B.A.R.

Last week installation artist and sculptor Theaster Gates hosted the first Black Artists Retreat in Chicago.  This also served as an introduction to the many projects Theaster has in progress.  The Black Cinema House, Archive Library, Blair House, Dorchester Artist Housing Collaborative, Hyde Park Art House, and the Kimbark Warehouse are all located on the south side of Chicago and will serve the communities they reside in, in a most immediate way.

The retreat was an opportunity for artists of many generations to meet, talk and plan for collaborative initiatives and ideas for the future.

Kenturah Davis and MJP were lucky and honored to be invited.  Were looking forward to the wonderful new things that will come out of it!

All photos below by Kenturah Davis

MJP & Carrie Mae Weems in dialogueTheaster GatesDinner at the Kimbark WarehouseB.A.R. guest & Curator Amanda HuntArtists - Kenturah Davis & Terence NanceArtists - Dawoud Bey, Carrie Mae Weems & Todd Gray

ARTE: SONDER Behind the Scenes!

Thursday evening we opened Kenturah Davis solo exhibit, Sonder. The opening was alot of fun escpically since a week before the opening the artist was still feverishly finishing the art works.  The photos below taken by photographer Xavier Fumat shows a behind the scene glimpse into a private invite only studio visit we did with art collectors and museum curators in LA. During these visits Michelle Joan Papillion walked the guest through Kenturah's work, they were also able to observe her process and watch her create. For photos from the opening click HERE

Update on Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 8:24AM by PAPILLION ART

THE TIME LAPSE VIDEO OF KENTURAH WORKING IN THE GALLERY CREATING ALL OF THE WORKS

ARTE: Barry McGee x Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair + Cadillac + MOCA LA got together to present ART IN THE STREETS: Brooklyn Style! SF native and street artist Barry McGee debuts an amazing, huge mural across the street from BAM.  They had the social media savvy photo booth in full effect at the party and everyone took advantage of it ;-)

MJPArtist Barry McGee & crewBarry's mural across the street from BAMSculptor Julie Schenkelberg & Larry Ossei-MensahAnt Demby & Singer Jenna AndrewsEVIAIR

ARTE: Be Beautiful Project video recap

Love all the beautiful people that turned out and are posting things like this! THANK U to kingjaythree

ARTE: With Love from P.I.A.

Update on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 4:25PM by PAPILLION ART

Numa Perrier shines in her new web series, The Couple...the first ep came out today!

ARTE: Jamel Shabazz + Michelle Joan Papillion = Vintage

A throwback photo by celebrated photographer Jamel Shabazz of gallery director Michelle Joan Papillion.  Taken a decade ago this photograph came about when Jamel was shooting an ad for Pro Keds and asked Michelle to be in it.

ARTE: MJP x LA RIOT

The Riot Starts Here...took this morning at the gallery, the day after our LA RIOT

ARTE: P.I.A. TURNS 1 YEARS OLD

1year ago today we opened our doors with The Hello Show we can not find the words to say how grateful we are for all of the support we have received during the last 12 months.  THANK YOU to LA and every where else around the globe, we look forward to many many more years to come with you all!

ARTE: Broccolli City x P.I.A.

A Co-Lab Effort

ARTE: MJP x P.I.A. x Edge Magazine

Edge Magazine published an interview with Michelle Joan Papillion today.  We love the photo of her in front of Lakwena Suit's work.

 Photo by Ashley Nguyen